Big changes to monetization and content moderation for YouTube - The UpStream

Big changes to monetization and content moderation for YouTube

posted Saturday Feb 23, 2019 by Scott Ertz

Big changes to monetization and content moderation for YouTube

For content creators, there is nothing worse than the strike system. Most users will receive one strike in their lifetime, often for things that are out of their control. That first strike will disable live streaming capabilities, and can even turn off monetization. The company has changed its policies on strikes, making the first rule violation a warning rather than a strike. This means that the majority of users will never receive an actual punishment anymore, making it far easier to build an audience. This applies to almost all rules but does not adjust YouTube's active content censorship.

Once YouTube began the process of censoring content, it was predicted that it would produce a slippery slope of continued censorship. While it started with advertisers complaining about terror videos, it has definitely evolved. Just last month, the company announced that they would define truth, and censor content that does not coincide with their truth. That policy has expanded its definition this week, officially declaring that anti-vaccination videos defied their truth. Because of this, any video that discusses anti-vaccination or the dubious science behind it can no longer be monetized. This decision was made after advertisers raised concerns that their products were appearing alongside these videos. YouTube said via statement,

We have strict policies that govern what videos we allow ads to appear on, and videos that promote anti-vaccination content are a violation of those policies. We enforce these policies vigorously, and if we find a video that violates them, we immediately take action and remove ads.

In addition to anti-vaccination videos, YouTube has taken action on another classification of videos: kids. Because of the way the YouTube algorithm works, once you start looking at certain videos, you create a profile that will continue to show that content. There is a large collection of videos of kids in compromising positions, usually girls in skirts who don't necessarily realize that they are flashing the camera. These videos have brought on inappropriate comments, timestamping, and sharing of "related content" by users. The process is detail by MattsWhatItIs.

Fortunately, YouTube has taken action on this problem by turning off comments on these videos, closing channels, and banning users. The problem has been known for years, but it took advertiser boycotts by companies like Epic Games before the company took action. It raises a question of what exactly is the driving force behind YouTube's motivations. The company willingly acts on videos that talk about flat-Earth, but it took advertiser interaction to respond to this.

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