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YouTube has just released stricter rules for YouTuber’s and they’re not happy. YouTube is raising the requirement for creators to be able to monetize their videos and be part of their Partner Program.
According to The Verge, for a channel or creator to apply for monetization they must have a minimum of 4,000 hours of watch time on their channel within the last 12 months. They also must have at least 1,000 subscribers. YouTube will start to enforce this new police on February 20th, so if a channel doesn’t meet these requirements they won’t make money from their videos.
The monetization rule before was that a channel needed to have 10,000 public views to join YouTube’s Partner Program. The new monetization rules will definitely hurt smaller channels and new YouTubers.
YouTube updated their monetization rule in response to Logan Paul’s YouTube video that showed the body of a dead man in Japan’s Aokigahara forest. People were outraged that the video made it through YouTube’s sensitivity checks and was allowed to post it. People called on YouTube to create a stricter policy with posted content, but instead they just made it harder for smaller channels to make money off their work.
As with all their recent changes this #YouTubePartnerProgram will only discourage individuals from making videos.
YouTube has made it clear it wants to be the new Netflix; abandoning what made it great and distinct in the first place.
— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) January 17, 2018
i love being a content creator on the Internet™ pic.twitter.com/iec7wX6F58
— Singto Conley 🦌 (@singtoconley) January 17, 2018
Logan Paul posts a video with a dead body.
What Should've Happened:
– @YouTube suspends or deletes his channel.
What Actually Happened:
– YouTube takes him off the TOP tier ad group
– YouTube changes the #YouTubePartnerProgram so channels w/ less than 1000 subs can't make money— anthony amorim (@AnthonyAmorim) January 17, 2018
Hey @YouTube! Why demonetise channels with less than 4000 hours watchtime/1000 subs to ‘protect your core values’? It’s the channels with 15,000,000+ subs that threaten your core values, yet you leave them alone. #YouTubePartnerProgram
— Jon Roberts (@JDR3009) January 17, 2018
YouTube animators right now #YouTubePartnerProgram #YouTubeIsBroken pic.twitter.com/51PUMVQ2e5
— Romain Wattrelot (@RomWatt_) January 17, 2018
#YouTubePartnerProgram Ahh…remember when YouTube was a place where everyone could post their random videos and it was all smiles and rainbows.
— alex #oskarstrong 💜 (@puckspaperbacks) January 17, 2018
Logan Paul, the YouTube golden boy who can do no wrong, films a dead body to clickbait impressionable children into watching his videos. YouTube's response? To punish unrelated small channels, again. #YouTubePartnerProgram
— Lee McM (@yourpallee) January 17, 2018
So Logan Paul is that random guy that sits at your table at a club, causes trouble and gets you kicked out by security but he can stay because he knows the owners. Way to encourage small channels @YouTube 👌 #YouTubePartnerProgram
— Bish 🌐 (@Bish_TTF) January 17, 2018
YouTuber’s think this is the way the platform is trying to weed smaller channels out and discourage them from making content.
The Small YouTuber community is something I'm VERY proud to be a part of. We're the definition of doing something solely because we LOVE it. No other reason. If YouTube thinks we're about to be discouraged by the #YouTubePartnerProgram Im rlly sorry but we're here to stay x
— becky (@bambinobecky) January 17, 2018
YouTube forgot that it was the creators who made the platform, not the other way around. I was once a small creator too. Looks like YT forgot their roots, and value profit over people. #YouTubePartnerProgram https://t.co/ilFdTnhWMP
— 𝓜 (@MichellePhan) January 17, 2018
@Youtube just told their small content creators that they don't matter. Instead of fixing their broken monetization algorithms, they threw the content creators under the bus. Thanks, YouTube. #YouTubePartnerProgram #YouTube
— Lars M. Hansen (@LarsCanGame) January 17, 2018
It seems like YouTube had a really great opportunity to improve their platform and create a precedent for future problematic videos and missed the mark.
