YouTube Controversy – Big Changes Coming

There has been a lot of controversy lately for YouTube and YouTube content creators alike, as several major US and UK brands have decided to stop advertising on the platform.

This comes after major brands, including AT&T, Verizon, Johnson & Johnson, L’Oreal and McDonalds were presented with evidence of their ads running alongside content featuring racism, extremism, and other controversial themes.

Why Are There YouTube Issues?

The fact of the matter is that YouTube has had many issues during its existence when it comes to managing any of its own content. Why? The simple answer is that there is simply just no way that YouTube can afford the manpower to accurately police which content gets paired with advertisements from which brands, and consequently have mainly relied on algorithms.

Historically, getting a YouTube channel monetized (which enables ads to show on your videos) has been very easy: All you had to do was sign up for the YouTube Partner Program, get your channel reviewed by YouTube (to ensure that your videos aren’t guilty of any blatant copyright infringements), and away you go.

Well…not any more! Unsurprisingly, recent developments and the loss of revenue caused by the mass boycott from major brands have forced YouTube to change the rules.

Changing Requirements

YouTube has recently announced on its blog that, moving forward, channels will only be eligible for the YouTube Partner Program, and monetization of said channels, if the channel has at least 10 000 lifetime video views.

Though this new requirement of 10 000 lifetime views does not necessarily completely fix the problem YouTube is currently facing, it does make enforcing advertiser standards exponentially easier by limiting the number of channels YouTube has to monitor.

The controversy has also encouraged YouTube to finally expand the amount for control and analytical data available to advertisers, so that advertisers have more insights into where their ads are appearing, allowing you to to choose to run your ads on specific content, or not.

Whether these changes are going to be enough from YouTube to win back the trust of their major advertisers, remains to be seen.