YouTube revamps channel verification process

[Shawn Knight]

A hot potato: Having a verified badge is a big deal for creators and goes a long way in validating their channel in the eyes of both subscribers and sponsors. Removing a badge from a valid channel could seriously impact that creator’s ability to earn a living, but then again, YouTube is no stranger to making controversial decisions that affect monetization.

Google is changing the way it verifies channels on YouTube to prioritize those that “have a clear need for proof of authenticity.”

Currently, a channel on the video sharing platform is eligible for verification if it has more than 100,000 subscribers – a method that worked well when YouTube was smaller but not so much as the site has grown in popularity.

Now, YouTube said it will look at a number of factors to determine if a channel is eligible for verification including seeing if it actually belongs to the real creator, artist, company or public figure it claims to represent, seeing if the channel is similar in name to other channels (presumably to determine if it is a clone, a satire account or the real account in a sea of look-alikes) and determining if it has a strong presence / is widely recognized outside of YouTube.

A YouTube representative told The Verge that channels who no longer meet the criteria for verification and may have their badge removed will be notified today and that they will have the option to appeal the decision before the changes start rolling out in late October.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/81978-youtube-revamps-channel-verification-process.html

 

[Nobina]

I don't see the reason for this except to **** with the creators, specifically the ones who they don't like.

 

[hahahanoobs]

"...and determining if it has a strong presence / is widely recognized outside of YouTube."

This is the only part I see as a problem. The rest looks like it is there to remove and keep the fake and lazy creators out.

 

[yRaz]

YouTube still isn't profitable, this sounds like a move to get more money from advertisers that making money for creators. They already prioritize large media accounts over independent channels in your recommended videos even if you aren't subscribed.

 

[Ravalo]

Not so relevant 100k sub channels: *chuckles* im in danger

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Next thing they'll have a verification process like Xhamster where you have to hold up a sign and take a selfie.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

YouTube still isn't profitable, this sounds like a move to get more money from advertisers that making money for creators. They already prioritize large media accounts over independent channels in your recommended videos even if you aren't subscribed.

Large scale HD video hosting simply will never be profitable, not without BS like "premium" paid accounts for HD streaming or something like that. Every time they try this, they piss off creators and reduce interest in the site, and dont actually make money, because the value of those ad dollars is always decreasing.

I cant wait for Youtube to completely implode.

 

[Uncle Al]

Might not be a bad idea .... I know of one bloke in the UK that sells himself as a computer expert and is constantly endorsing a scam to sell passwords and keys "guaranteed" to work. So far everyone I've contacted has told me the same story, they bought it, installed it and within an hour it was ID'd as a bad PW. Sad thing is he is very good technically with over a half million viewers but he just keeps up with this persistent scam and so far YouTube hasn't answered any of the complaints or done anything about it.

 

[retsxel]

Next thing they'll have a verification process like Xhamster(Porn Site) where you have to hold up a sign and take a selfie.

Warn people will ya? Seriously. I made the mistake of typing that address in directly instead of googling it. You could have made it clear what kind of site it was. Please edit your post to reflect such. Not everyone is into that kind of thing and would prefer to avoid it. Luckily I didn't see much as NoScript blocked almost everything from loading.

To be fair, yes if I had taken a moment to think about it I might have figured it out from the name, but then again it's not blatantly obvious. I just wanted to see what you were talking about.

 

[Bubbajim]

YouTube still isn't profitable, this sounds like a move to get more money from advertisers that making money for creators. They already prioritize large media accounts over independent channels in your recommended videos even if you aren't subscribed.

Out of curiosity, how do you know this? YouTube don't release financial information and its parent company Alphabet just bundle various 'Google' properties together when they do release financials.

Best estimates I can find seem to conclude that YouTube's revenues sit somewhere between $5-$10 billion per year (obviously a very large gap between the two!) but I just can't imagine YouTube's running costs going over the $10 billion mark.

I'd be keen to read anything you know of on the topic.

 

[Ludak021]

"...and determining if it has a strong presence / is widely recognized outside of YouTube."

This is the only part I see as a problem. The rest looks like it is there to remove and keep the fake and lazy creators out.

I am subbed to a lot of channels with 500K + subs that lost verification. And there are channels with less than 500K subs that didn't.

 

[retsxel]

There's been an updated on the situation.
https://www.techspot.com/news/81998-youtube-ceo-issues-public-apology-verification-changes.html