YouTube changes its rules again
This week the folks at YouTube responsible for the rules it lives by have made another big change. Details have been shared this morning on what YouTube is allowing in or out – and which sorts of content all content judges will be considering "hate speech". As a result, there could be some major turn-overs for which videos are able to be monetized and which won't see any revenue from this point forward.
Three categories are – as of this week – the three major towers under which non-monetize-friendly content will rest. If a YouTube content creator hopes to make cash from YouTube, they'll want to avoid the following. These categories were shared this week by YouTube in a message to creators.
Three main categories for non-ad-friendly YouTube content:• Hateful Content
• Inappropriate use of family entertainment characters
• Incendiary and demeaning content
Hateful content is, according to YouTube, anything that "promotes discrimination or disparages or humiliates an individual or group of people on the basis of the individual's or group's race, ethnicity, or ethnic origin, nationality, religion, disability, age, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or other characteristic associated with systematic discrimination or marginalization."
The second category refers to cartoon characters or otherwise family-friendly characters in inappropriate ways. This would normally be something more like "parody" and protected as such – and it is, to a point – but YouTube still doesn't necessarily allow such content to be given ad revenue. Characters cannot be subject to "violent, sexual, vile, or otherwise inappropriate behavior."
The final category is likely broad in a very intentional way. Incendiary and demeaning content could mean a lot of things, and YouTube wants to make SURE they're able to kick out anything that an ad company might object to.
These categories cover just one part of the full gamut of content types not allowed by YouTube for ad profit. The rest mostly fits within the "you need to own this if you plan to make money" universe. Also included in this no-no pile from AdSense program policies is the appearance of invalid clicks and impressions – do not click your own ads, do not artificially inflate impressions or clicks.
This set of clarifications of rules made by Google for YouTube likely come after some less-than-pleasing numbers of companies leaving YouTube's ad program. This is just one of a set of measures that began to roll out to ad creators earlier this year. Also have a peek at how this past April YouTube added a number of new ad revenue restrictions to target content creators who were actually just thieves in disguise.
VIA: YouTube Blog