- YouTube just pulled hundreds of videos sponsored by paid essay-writing service EduBirdie, which encourages academic cheating.
- The videos were removed following a BBC investigation that reported the existence of more than 250 YouTube channels containing paid promotions for EduBirdie on the site.
- The promotions violate YouTube’s Academic Aid policy, which states “advertising is not permitted for academic aids.”
YouTube over the weekend pulled hundreds of videos promoting the essay-writing service EduBirdie, a Ukraine-based company that connects students with writers to compose their classroom assignments for a fee.
The removal of the videos follows a BBC investigation published earlier last week that reported the existence of more than 250 YouTube channels containing paid promotions for EduBirdie. Among the channels promoting the service were influencers like Adam Saleh and the gamer JMX, both of whom have millions of subscribers.
EduBirdie, which describes itself as “the professional essay writing service for students who can’t even,” charges students a fee starting at $18 per page for each assignment. Sam Gyimah, the Universities Minister for England, told the BBC that the site is “clearly wrong because it is enabling and normalizing cheating potentially on an industrial scale.”
Multiple YouTubers said their videos were sponsored by EduBirdie, meaning they were paid to promote a service that encourages academic cheating. As the BBC points out, it isn’t illegal to promote academic cheating, but if the student is found out, it can incur penalties and academic discipline.
The paid promotions for EduBirdie violate YouTube's Academic Aid policy, which states that "Advertising is not permitted for academic aids." The site's Academic Aid policy includes academic paper-writing services "providing customized/prewritten theses [and] dissertations."
