YouTube has long had a problem with questionable content being uploaded onto its website and somehow not being removed. It’s also had problems with some of its biggest stars, where in a way YouTube needs them just as much as they need YouTube, meaning that in some instances, some of these creators can get away with certain things.However following the massive global backlash that was Logan Paul’s video series in Japan (in which he was accused of being racist, insensitive, and so on), YouTube is finally doing something about it, something that was hinted at last week. What this entails is YouTube being more strict when it comes to creators becoming partners, which hopefully means YouTube will be more stringent when it comes to enforcing its rules to try and weed out the bad apples.
According to YouTube, “A big part of that effort will be strengthening our requirements for monetization so spammers, impersonators, and other bad actors can’t hurt our ecosystem or take advantage of you, while continuing to reward those who make our platform great.” This includes making it harder to become a partner, where creators now need to have at least 4,000 hours of watchtime within the past 12 months and at least 1,000 subscribers.
YouTube claims that this will “allow us to significantly improve our ability to identify creators who contribute positively to the community and help drive more ad revenue to them (and away from bad actors). These higher standards will also help us prevent potentially inappropriate videos from monetizing which can hurt revenue for everyone.”
These changes are expected to be introduced on the 20th of February, 2018 to allow for a 30-day grace period, after which channels which don’t meet the new requirements will no longer be able to earn money on YouTube.
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