SEASIDE HEIGHTS, NJ – The Nelk Boys are the YouTubers who came to Seaside Heights on Monday, drawing huge crowds of fans, many teens and young adults not social distancing and not wearing face masks. Days before their stunt in Seaside Heights, the Nelk Boys threw parties at Illinois State University and created videos protesting COVID-19 safety guidelines. For that, YouTube has demonetized the group’s video channel, cutting its financial revenue stream from its channel which is followed by 5.7 million subscribers.
“We have temporarily suspended monetization on the Nelk Boys channel for violating our Creator Responsibility policy,” said a YouTube spokesperson. “If we see that a creator’s off-platform behavior harms our users, community, employees or ecosystem, we take action to protect the community”
YouTube said the Nelk Boys’ recent actions to host pop-up parties that violate local COVID-19 health guidelines is the reason for their suspension on the platform.
“In this case, these creators were encouraging very large groups of people to actively disregard social distancing guidelines from local health authorities that were put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19, creating a widespread public health risk.”
Seaside Heights has now issued several violations against the owner of the Jersey Shore house, owned by Daytona Beach-based D&P Rentals.
On Wednesday, Governor Phil Murphy called the Nelk Boys, “Knuckleheads” for their actions and did not rule out punitive actions against the Canadian based YouTubers.
“These knuckleheads are not welcome in New Jersey,” Murphy said.
After being threatened with eviction from their rental at the Jersey Shore house by police on Monday, Nelk Boys pleaded with their fans to leave, nearly in tears. The group’s net worth prior to Monday’s incident and demonetization by YouTube was estimated at approximately $1.8 million.
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