After a recent global brand boycott that saw some 250 advertisers backing out of their ad agreement with YouTube, the company has made some changes. An announcement was posted Thursday in the creator blog informing of a new limitation to the YouTube Partner Program. Channels will need to have at least 10k lifetime views to start serving ads. Those with views less than the new threshold will have to wait first, allowing some time for their channels to be validated.
Setting a new threshold
For current creators already in the program, this new threshold is not going to affect the revenue generated from their previous activities.
The partner program is still open for everyone, but new applicants won’t be admitted into the program until they reached more than 10,000 views. The review process, which usually occurs upon acceptance, now takes place after the 10k milestone. YouTube currently provides another way for channels to monetize their Video Content through a free Google AdSense account, which generates money only when visitors interact with the banner ads placed over their content.
Policing video content
Google has made some changes to its ad policy, too, tweaking it to be more mindful of the content serving the ads. The tech company has said that it would invest more money and more people to make certain that the ads are shown alongside “advertiser-friendly” content.
Ads from content considered hateful, offensive and derogatory will be removed, or content that appears to be designed for the purpose of “attacking or harassing people based on their race, religion, gender or similar categories”. Otherwise, its parent company, Alphabet Inc., risks losing an estimated $750 millions in revenue this year from the ad boycotts.
YouTube’s policy for the YouTube Partner Program is now making it easier for people to report an impersonating channel. This includes impersonation of a channel or an individual, but do not cover scammers or fraudsters. Channels will still be evaluated based on YouTube’s community guidelines and advertiser policies before they qualify to earn a steady creator revenue, and Google has improved its flagging ability.
The company is said to be working on a technology that would be able to identify offensive videos, along with other tech start-ups and tech giants that are recruiting people in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Google AI’s more difficult task
YouTube’s most recent move is not yet in full effect. The announcement is made as part of Google’s larger effort to improve “brand safety controls”. Google said that the company had to remove nearly 2 billion “bad ads” and 100,000 publishers from its AdSense program to prevent ads from showing up on over 300 million videos on YouTube. The company has since allocated more AI tools to decipher YouTube’s vast video library, more people to police the content, and implemented more requirements to its partner program on Thursday.
