For the past few weeks, YouTube has been under fire from critics. Google's video streaming service is accused of not moderating content on its platform sufficiently.
Last case to date, the video - deleted since then - of Youtuber star Logan Paul where you can see a dead man hanging there. He apologized, but YouTube was mostly prompted to react, while child videos and questionable channels were often associated with potentially pedophile comments.
On the blog dedicated to creators, YouTube announces a change in its monetization rules, which are associated with new moderation tools, specially designed to be integrated into the most popular channels.
From now on, to earn money on its videos, a channel will have to accumulate 4000 hours of video watched over the last twelve months, and total at least 1000 subscribers. The goal is to eliminate hackers, but also that commercials appear on inappropriate videos. In addition, Youtubers who are members of the Google Preferred program (which allows an advertiser to appear on the most popular channels) will see their videos controlled humanely, not by a robot.
All channels will be affected by this major change as of 20 February, including few of my personal channels I own since many years. :(
Some voices are particularly against these measures, arguing that they will make it impossible for new creators to emerge. In addition, the new "human" moderation system for renowned channels could also be seen as censorship, and a way for Google to silence certain opinions more easily.
However, this only solves part of the problem. While advertisers now seem to be protected from problematic videos, they are still as present on YouTube, and so far none of the measures announced by the platform really address them.
After this new case, I decided to quit the Youtube Partner Program by myself, to come here on Steemit and use the DTube platform. It blows here a wind of freedom which is rather appreciable. :)
