Recently, YouTube changed their policies on monetization to videos posted to their site.
Why does this matter?
The new policies include not allowing creators to put anything in their videos that might be offensive in any way. This means no profanity, graphic images, hateful content, sex or sexual references, or anything else controversial. When I say anything else controversial, I mean politics, war, tragedies, or natural disasters, even if they do not contain graphic images.
No one can talk about the news. Some people get all of their information from the internet and like to watch videos discussing any topic you can think of. If creators aren't getting ad revenue from YouTube anymore, they're going to stop talking about important topics. Twitter user Channon Rose said her video was flagged after she was trying to raise awareness for cancer. The very topic of this very article could be flagged as "not ad friendly" if discussed in a video.
I personally don't watch videos that contain controversial topics, sexual references or large sums of profanity. However, some creators I watch use profanity every once in a while, or make a joke. Even though I don't watch these things, other people do and they do not care or are not offended by the topics. People can choose to not watch something that offends them.
There is something else about this policy that bothers me. While popular YouTubers make most of their money from YouTube, they are not hurting financially. They risk having some of their videos flagged, but for the most part, they generate revenue in other places as well. They don't only rely on only ad revenue on their videos.
Small YouTubers on the other hand will be hurting. Videos that are monetized are ranked higher in the YouTube algorithm. If someone can't monetize their video due to "sensitive" material, then it will not rank. No one will be able to find their videos, and they won't be able to grow their channels in any way.
Large and small channels alike are all complaining about the new policy via twitter with the trend #YouTubeisoverparty. Users from everywhere, under every genre, talking about the problem and how they feel about it.
Content can still be posted but it can't be monetized. Money isn't everything, but it certainly can be a motivating factor for many and I feel like it isn't fair to censor people's creativity on an outlet that thrives on creativity.
I understand the motivation for the change in policy, but I don't feel its fair and I really think this is going to end up hurting everyone in the long run.
