When it comes to policing YouTube videos and deciding what should be allowed to stay up an what shouldn’t, it feels like YouTube is still trying to figure out how to go about doing that. This is because YouTube has recently revealed on Twitter (via Engadget) that they are now blocking ads on videos that could be prone to predatory comments.
This seems to be in response to recent backlash where various advertisers have pulled out of advertising on YouTube due to a “soft-core pedophilia ring” discovered within video comments, especially on videos that contain children. Unsurprisingly this has upset quite a few creators who feel that it is unfair that their videos will no longer be able to make money, and that they are “paying” for something that is entirely out of their control.
According to YouTube’s response to creators, the company says, “With regard to the actions that we’ve taken, even if your video is suitable for advertisers, inappropriate comments could result in your video receiving limited or no ads (yellow icon).” YouTube also states that since not all channels bother to moderate their comments to keep such predatory comments at bay, they had to adopt an aggressive approach and take broader action.
Like we said, this really feels like YouTube is still trying to figure out how to best manage its community as their recent actions are certainly not going down well. Hopefully the company will find a better solution in the future, but in the meantime it looks like some creators might suffer some loss of revenue as a result.
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