It’s never a good idea to post anything offensive online.
Many social media platforms have been cracking down on hateful, discriminatory and distasteful posts throughout the past year – and our favourite video-sharing platform is now taking it one step further.
Last week, YouTube announced new sanctions against creators who upload videos that are harmful to viewers, others members of the community, and/or advertisers.
Channels featuring offensive content will have their monetization options removed from their videos, along with access to YouTube’s advertising programs. While this may not be news to some creators, YouTube is now taking it a step further. The platform may suppress a channel’s “discoverability” on the platform, if it feels a creator is posting distasteful content.
This means that if you break the rules, YouTube’s team of human curators and AI won’t recommend your channel to viewers that are searching for new videos to watch (and new channels to subscribe).
Not good.
YouTube has always been known as the platform that supports comedy, buffoonery and freedom of expression. But in the past few months, it has run into some problems with its star creators. By supressing a channel’s ability to be “discoverable” by viewers, YouTube is actively preventing a creator’s following from growing and limiting the amount of views they will amass on their vlogs.
And while some YouTube sensations may not care about having their videos demonetized, fewer views means fewer merchandise sales – and fewer paid brand collaborations. Brands want to team up with influencers that have high engagement rates on their content, so fewer views = a decrease in collab revenue.
Bottom line: if you’re serious about developing yourself as a YouTube sensation don’t post offensive, distasteful, hateful or rude videos on your channel.
What are your thoughts? Is YouTube being too harsh on creators? Let us know in the comments below…