# Is a New YouTube on the Horizon?

- Link: https://chatterblast.com/blog/is-a-new-youtube-on-the-horizon/
- Published: 2018-04-25T16:24:34-04:00
- Author: chatterblastteam

A new YouTube is on the horizon – well, maybe not entirely – but a new YouTube Ad
policy is already being rolled out, which has the potential to bring the platform
back to its roots and make it one for creators again.

Unless you were living off the grid for the first few months of this year, you know
about YouTube’s “Adpocalypse” in February. In the wake of **Zombie Go Boom**’s [demonetization case](https://www.tubefilter.com/2018/03/08/zombie-go-boom-adpocalypse-decision/),
and the **Logan Paul **[controversies](https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/9/16986014/logan-paul-youtube),
adpocalypse was essentially a mass demonetization of videos.

This came about due to rewriting of ad guidelines, done largely without informing
the YouTube Creator community. Fast forward to April and we can see many creators
still reeling from the lost revenue and lower views, which has led to a soft migration
to other platforms by many.

## **Background**

Ever since YouTube started running ads back in 2006, there have been terms, rules,
and guidelines in place regarding ads and acceptable content. Slowly but surely,
YouTube has been tightening those regulations in order to make their platform more
advertiser friendly.

This came to a head in early 2018 with the Adpocalypse, when the YouTube channel
Zombie Go Boom, which featured creators James Sweet and Chuck Meré testing out all
kinds of weapons on dummies, was demonetized. This content was deemed not advertiser
friendly by YouTube and subsequently caused the channel to lose 90 to 95% of its
ad revenue.

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Sweet and Meré filed a lawsuit in with the goal of getting YouTube to be more transparent
about how these policies worked and what changes they were making. YouTube got off
on a technicality, but that doesn’t mean all hope is lost for creators… or does 
it?

Following this, and the various Logan Paul controversies (and YouTube’s stark lack
of response or demonetization of Paul’s own channel), YouTube has been facing a 
lot of backlash where transparency of their policies is concerned.

## **So what?**

YouTube started as a place for content creators to share their work, and many feel
it has since turned into a machine that pumps out ad revenue at the expense of those
same creators. The ad policies that brought on Adpocalypse included, rewriting of
ad guidelines, a new system, and a new shift towards producing advertiser friendly
content ([among other things](https://www.tubefilter.com/2017/05/04/how-youtube-adpocalypse-affected-top-creators/))–
and an algorithm based demonetization process. Here’s where it gets tricky.

Suppose your video was demonetized on upload. You would then need to appeal the 
decision and wait for a real person at YouTube to review. Once this review happened,
the video would either gain back it’s monetization, or the demonetization would 
stand. This process could sometimes take days, and the first 24 to 48 hours after
upload are crucial time slots for YouTubers – that is when a majority of their views
happen.

But assume that your video got remonitized, those views you racked up count, right?

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## **W R O N G**.

Re-monetization is not retroactive, which caused content creators to lose out on
huge percentages of their revenue. All because an algorithm may have incorrectly
labeled their video “not advertiser friendly.”

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For large creators (see: Casey Neistat, Philip DeFranco, H3H3, PewDiePie) these 
policies meant their commentary videos about controversial topics – a terrorist 
attack, gun control, foreign affairs – wherein they have educated discussions about
world issues, would get demonetized simply because they contained language around
those topics.

Small creators were arguably hit harder, with increased requirements in order to
even become eligible for ads to be run on their channel, requiring increased subscriber
counts and more total hours watched. (for a more complete breakdown of AdSense and
YouTube monetization – [see Nate’s article here](http://chatterblast.wpengine.com/adsense-success-creating-youtube/))

## **A Silver Lining?**

On April 2nd (close call, I know) a [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2fdB8TNGmI)
was published by YouTube Creator technical team’s channel **Creative Insider,** 
detailing what they are calling a new “Monetization Self Certification Policy.” 
This policy is geared towards YouTube’s most vocal users – content creators that
rely heavily on channel monetization – by introducing this pilot program that will
allow them to “self report” the content in their videos as it relates to advertisers.

This is essentially flipping the script – if a creator fills out this “self certification
form”, their video will be monetized automatically and will only get demonetized
if deemed to be not advertiser friendly after a human review.  In YouTube’s initial
test, 15 creators were asked to fill out this form (found in this video [description](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2fdB8TNGmI)),
and the majority of the creators filled it out in the same way that YouTube’s human
reviewers did, meaning their videos were rated correctly in terms of content by 
their uploaders.

What this represents in the long term is a process where YouTube gives creators 
the opportunity to be honest about the content of their videos, so that they can
be monetized correctly. This is huge for YouTube and creators alike because, in 
the wake of all of the distrust and criticism YouTube has been facing, self monetization
is a show of trust to creators, and olive branch, that shows YouTube really wants
to help these creators and keep their long time loyal creators on their platform.

> this is a huge deal for creators. Self Certification lets the creator get detailed
> about what's in a video (swears, violence, etc) so YouTube can make a more informed
> decision about monetization. a system that relies on trusting creators. well done
> [@YouTube](https://twitter.com/YouTube?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) + [@YTCreators](https://twitter.com/YTCreators?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
> [https://t.co/1ihYPU0NZO](https://t.co/1ihYPU0NZO)
> — Casey Neistat (@Casey) [April 24, 2018](https://twitter.com/Casey/status/988701673454522368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

This new policy has been met with a lot of praise from the most outspoken critics
of the Adpocalypse fallout, and it seems like YouTube is making progress to gain
back the trust and loyalty of its core creative users. Right now this is a closed
pilot program, open to a small number of select users. And if it proves successful,
it could quickly move to an open pilot for channels that meet certain criteria and
then eventually for everyone. Stay tuned!

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