YouTube Monetisation Policy
It seems all hell is breaking loose this week! well at least for the small YouTubers who have less than 4000 watch time. Following the new series of rules YouTube just recently gave out this week specifically on Tuesday, there’s been some controversy- some vloggers are for, while most are against.
In recent months, the company has faced criticism over an inappropriate content on its children’s app, as well as its promotion of false conspiracy theory. So they’ve gone all gangster and set new rules.
YouTube’s new rules state that creators must now accrue 4,000 hours of watch time over the course of 12 months and reach 1,000 subscribers to join YouTube’s Partner Program and qualify for monetization. This is a big change from the company’s previous rules put in place last year that allowed any channel with 10,000 views to apply for the Partner Program. This change is huge and will no doubt make it harder for new, smaller channels to reach monetization, but YouTube says it’s an important way of buying itself more time to see who’s following the company’s guidelines and disqualify “bad actors.”
“We’ve arrived at these new thresholds after thorough analysis and conversations with creators like you,” the company announced in a blog post.
YouTube confirmed that the “new requirements will also be applied to existing channels in YouTube’s Partner Program, but they’ll be permitted to continue monetizing until February 20th, 2018,” giving channels a 30-day deadline to hit the threshold. Creators will be allowed to submit their channels for consideration if they’ve met the threshold after the 30-day period. YouTube also confirmed on Twitter that creators who have revenue from AdSense in their account but don’t meet the new guidelines will be able to withdraw those funds prior to being dropped from the program.
“If your channel does not meet the current monetization requirements, any revenue you earned prior to being removed from the program will still be paid through your AdSense account according to the standard payment timeline,” YouTube said.
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While all this sounds reasonable, it’s alluded that the cause of this new, stricter policy is because of a popular star creator and influencer Logan Paul. Paul is a 22-year-old celebrity YouTuber with more than 15 million subscribers. It was after he published a video that showed a dead body in Japan’s Aokigahara forest. Last week, YouTube kicked Paul off its Google Preferred ad program and placed his YouTube Red original programming efforts on hold. The new rules came just following YouTube’s decision to allow the popular vlogger Logan Paul to continue to monetize his videos even after he broadcasted an apparent suicide victim’s body. YouTube’s reforms this week are meant to tighten restrictions on ads in the wake of the scandal. YouTube is enacting a series of sanctions against Logan Paul, the popular vlogger was forced to apologize after he which he uploaded a video on 31 December showing the body of an apparent suicide victim in Japan.
Paul later apologised to his 3.9 million followers on Twitter:
“Where do I begin … Let’s start with this – I’m sorry,” he said.
“This is a first for me. I’ve never faced criticism like this before because I’ve never made a mistake like this before.”
He added: “I didn’t do it for views. I get views. I did it because I thought I could make a positive ripple on the internet, not cause a monsoon of negativity. That’s never the intention. I intended to raise awareness for suicide and suicide prevention.”
Paul’s personal channel, which boasts more than 15.6 million subscribers, will be removed from YouTube’s premium advertisement lineup, Google Preferred, a YouTube spokesperson confirmed. Google Preferred packages YouTube’s most popular channels for blue-chip advertisers.
These new policies seem quite strict and cumbersome, some people feel its double standard. It actually frightening what the new policies could mean for vloggers with smaller audiences and artists who seek ad revenue to support their work. Vloggers who discuss mental health, disability and LGBT topics, in particular, have argued that YouTube is failing them by not allowing them place ads on some videos, while rewarding creators who produce offensive content.
YouTube wrote in a blogpost that it would “better protect creators” and stop “bad actors” by raising standards for ad eligibility, requiring channels to have 4,000 hours of views within the past year and 1,000 subscribers.
I guess my dream to be a popular fashion and inspirational vlogger would have to be put on the back burner for now, seeing that YouTube is now a serious business with 4000 hours of view to aspire to if I want to earn anything at all.
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Maryam Salam 