(Update): How Online Users responded to YouTube’s termination of Middle East Observer – Facts & Figures

Hello fellow observers,

Just five days after YouTube’s termination of our channel, here’s some of the major developments that occurred in response to this decision:

a) the number of ‘Patrons’ supporting us financially on our Patreon page grew by an outstanding 70%, opening up much greater opportunities for MEO to not only become more sustainable but to increase its content production too (e.g. one more Patron and we will reach 30 total Patrons – which means we’ll be committing to producing at least 6 video translations/month, in line with our current stated goal on Patreon – a significant milestone indeed!).

b) the number of subscribers on our website mailing list grew by %170

c) the number of our Twitter followers grew by 200%

d) major spikes in the number of ‘likes’ and general engagement on our Facebook page

Many heartfelt thanks once again to everyone who supported us with a word of solidarity, a subscription to our website mailing list or social media, and/or crucially, a financial sponsorship of our project on our Patreon page!

Meanwhile, ALOT is going on behind the scenes, most notably:

1. We are gradually uploading some of the more than 250 videos that were taken down by YouTube on to our Daily Motion channel. We will embed every video that we upload on our Daily Motion channel on to our website aswell as stand alone posts.

2. We are replacing the ‘dead’ embedded video links on our website with the Daily Motion video links (this is a gradual process, but you may have noticed that we have already replaced many dead links with the functional Daily Motion versions).

3. We are working on a more detailed and rigorous long-term strategic plan for MEO which takes into consideration the relatively huge developments (both positive and negative) that MEO experienced over the past one week. We will share some details of this strategic vision with you in due time.

Thanks again to every single person who stood in solidarity with MEO and the freedom to express alternative news and views.