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YouTube Date: 2020 From: Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection Publisher: Gale, a Cengage Company Document Type: Topic overview Length: 1,895 words Content Level: (Level 5) Lexile Measure: 1420L

Full Text: In 2005 three former employees of the online payment system PayPal launched the video-sharing social media website YouTube. The following year, the technology company and search engine pioneer Google purchased the company for $1.65 billion. YouTube introduced paid in-video advertisements in August 2007 and launched its Partner Program later that year, allowing approved third- party creators to monetize their content through these advertisements, splitting the profits between the website and the creator. The Partner Program enabled many independent content creators to earn revenue, and several have been able to make careers from their YouTube channels. Starting in 2015, however, advertisers became concerned that their ads appeared alongside offensive content including videos depicting child abuse and promoting extremist organizations. Several successful YouTube content creators also attracted negative attention for posting questionable content that some viewers considered insensitive or inappropriate.

YouTube announced in 2017 that video content would need to meet site guidelines for making content deemed family- or advertiser- friendly. Some YouTube creators criticized the move because their earnings diminished. Others applauded the removal of questionable content and creators that repeatedly violated the site's rules. YouTube has faced repeated lawsuits related to its content moderation policies including alleged censorship of conservative groups like PragerU and alleged discrimination against LGBTQ content. Conflicting interests and concerns have led YouTube to alter its policies several times.

As of 2020 YouTube is the second-most visited site in the world. According to YouTube, it has more than two billion users, and its video services are localized in one hundred countries and can be accessed in eighty languages. Over one billion hours of video content are viewed on the site each day, while over five hundred hours of content are uploaded to the site every minute. In expanding its service, YouTube has launched several pay services. Movie rentals were added in 2010 and Music Key in 2014. YouTube Red, which allowed users to view content offline and without ads for a monthly fee, was introduced in 2015 and later renamed YouTube Premium. YouTube's mobile app YouTube Kids, launched in 2015, filters content and allows parents more control over what their children watch. In 2016 YouTube introduced the YouTube VR app, which allows users to upload and explore virtual reality content. YouTube expanded again with YouTube TV in 2017 and YouTube Music in 2018. The site has hosted and broadcast several live events including concerts, awards ceremonies, sporting events, and US presidential debates.

Main Ideas YouTube is the world's largest video-sharing platform, hosting billions of videos in eighty languages every day. YouTube maintains community standards guidelines and monitoring programs to protect the platform and users from objectionable content. As YouTube has grown, the platform has introduced monetization programs that allow creators to generate revenue uploading content and creating channels. YouTube and creators have suffered losses when advertisers pull ad spending due to public outcry over objectionable content. People who gain fame from YouTube can be subject to social scrutiny, which can have tangible effects.

Monitoring Content

Since its inception, YouTube has launched several programs to identify and remove content that violates the law or the site's community guidelines. YouTube is under minimal legal obligation to do so under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) of 1996, which protects sites like YouTube against liability for content posted by independent users. Despite the protections afforded by the CDA, YouTube has acted voluntarily to maintain the platform in accordance with its own community guidelines, particularly as it seeks to build cooperative relationships with advertisers, governments, and the communities in which it operates.

The company frequently modifies its processes and protocols for monitoring content. Part of the problem stems from the disconnect between content that drives traffic to the site and content that meets the site's guidelines. Copyrighted content uploaded by unauthorized users, for example, may attract users to the site, as such content is likely more recognizable and of higher production quality than amateur content. However, allowing unauthorized content on its platform would risk damaging YouTube's many relationships with media outlets, record companies, and Hollywood movie studios. The site also offers users several options for finding copyright violations on the site. YouTube allows users in possession of a large amount of copyrighted material, such as film and television studios, to enroll in their Content ID and Content Verification programs to identify and report violations more quickly. In 2018 YouTube introduced the Copyright Match Tool, which allows some users to search the site for unauthorized uploads by other users of the creator's content. YouTube can be found in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 if the copyrighted material meets certain criteria and YouTube fails to respond to complaints from copyright holders.

Through a series of investigations in 2017, reporters from the Times of London uncovered an abundance of objectionable videos being linked with advertisements for mainstream companies. The Times investigation first exposed videos made by white nationalist groups and religious terrorist organizations, and later discovered videos involving sexualized images of young children and child pornography. Several news outlets also reported on YouTube channels that featured videos aimed at children that featured licensed characters such as Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man and Disney character Elsa engaging in bizarre behaviors including sexual activity, violence, and drug use. Further reports discovered several channels in which parents appeared to be exploiting their children and, in some cases, abusing them for entertainment purposes. As a result of these scandals, YouTube removed millions of videos, suspended several accounts, and announced it would hire more people to monitor user content. Following the revelations, several major advertisers, including McDonald's, PepsiCo, and Verizon temporarily suspended their campaigns on the site.

In its official statements, YouTube committed to monitoring for extremist content and removing it from its site. However, action has not always been consistent. In 2020 the company banned the accounts of self-avowed white supremacists David Duke and Richard Spencer. Similarly, YouTube banned content related to the conspiracy theory QAnon, which alleges that Donald Trump is fighting a secret sex trafficking ring within the government. According to the New York Times, YouTube was QAnon's most powerful tool in recruiting for and promoting the conspiracy theory. The site also provided a platform for misinformation during the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. For example, YouTube has been accused of failing to prevent the rise of a completely unsupported theory connecting the pandemic to the development of 5G telecommunication networks. Videos with misinformation about COVID-19 were initially demonetized by YouTube in early 2020, but some creators have since regained the ability to generate revenue from discussing the disease on YouTube.

Monetization

Creators have been able to earn money on YouTube since 2007 when the company invited its top creators to join the YouTube Partner Program. The program was later expanded and as of 2020 is open to content creators with at least one thousand subscribers and four thousand valid public watch hours. Through the placement of ads before and within YouTube videos, the program allowed some content creators to earn the equivalent of a full-time salary, while most small creators generated more modest amounts of revenue. Since YouTube introduced monetization for creators, eligibility has changed several times, at times adjusting to address controversial or objectionable content. The platform provides several ways for users to earn money. For example, affiliate links allow content creators to receive a percentage of advertisers' sales generated through links listed on individual videos.

Advertisers have faced criticisms and sometimes boycotts in response to their advertising being paired with offensive, misleading, or polarizing content. The company has also aroused controversy in its monitoring of the advertisements. For example, after its 2017 decision to create site guidelines for making content deemed family- or advertiser-friendly, and as part of YouTube's revamp of its Partner Program, the company identified videos that it deemed unsuitable for advertisers and demonetized them or restricted them to viewers age eighteen and older. The YouTube creator community termed the purging of content the "Adpocalypse." Following this purge, many LGBTQ creators asserted that the company had targeted many videos that featured LGBTQ content but did not violate the company's policies. Transgender creators noted that videos would automatically be demonetized if the videos featured the word "transgender" in the title. In April 2018 Nasim Aghdam, a thirty-eight-year-old content creator who made videos about fitness and veganism, visited YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, California, where she shot three employees in protest of the company's demonetization policies, before killing herself. YouTube had demonetized Aghdam's videos, alleging they were not family friendly.

In addition to allegations of censorship, YouTube has faced allegations of making politicized decisions. The platform's bans on users who promote misinformation have received considerable pushback from some creators and their audiences. In December 2019, for example, YouTube removed about three hundred paid ads for President Donald Trump's reelection campaign for violating the site's community standards.

Critical Thinking Questions What type of content, if any, do you think YouTube should devote the most resources to removing from its site? Do you think YouTube's monetization policies are fair? Explain your answer. In your opinion, should influential online platforms like YouTube be subject to greater government regulation? Why or why not?

YouTube Stardom

With billions of videos on its site, YouTube hosts a wide range of content across many genres. Independent content creators who have been the most successful on YouTube typically create videos that deal with video games, cosmetics, music, comedy, and fringe political beliefs. Some creators make videos with high production quality, while others use the platform to share their thoughts through

the relatively low-cost option of video blogging, or vlogging, which entails someone speaking directly into a single camera and usually involves minimal editing or effects. In some instances, creators have gained fame beyond the YouTube site, performing live on national tours and holding conventions for fellow content creators and fans.

Prominent content creators on social media sites like YouTube are often referred to as influencers because of their ability to influence their followers. Because influencers on YouTube can have followers in the millions, their actions sometimes come under scrutiny. Beauty influencer Jeffree Star has drawn controversy for his behavior both on- and off-line. For example, backlash from Star's racially derogatory and threatening comments from the early 2010s compelled him to release a video apology in 2017. Similarly, YouTube conspiracy theorist Shane Dawson came under scrutiny for releasing racially insensitive content, including a video of himself "acting Black." Like Jeffree Star, Dawson released an apology video on his channel. In summer 2020 Shane Dawson was formally demonetized by YouTube.

Content creators that engage in controversial or offensive activity may face personal or professional consequences, sometimes referred to as being canceled. YouTube does not determine who is "canceled" and only gets involved when community guidelines are violated. Rather, being canceled occurs when an influential group of online users determines a person's actions cannot be forgiven. On YouTube, canceling someone may involve refusing to watch the creator's content, unsubscribing from their channel, or calling for sponsors or employers to end their relationships with the creator.

As content creators gain more subscribers, YouTube recognizes certain achievements by bestowing the administrators of the site's most popular channels awards shaped like the site's signature "play" button logo. Channels with one hundred thousand subscribers receive a silver award, while channels with one million subscribers receive a gold award and channels with ten million subscribers receive a diamond award.

Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2021 Gale, a Cengage Company Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition) "YouTube." Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2020. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,

link.gale.com/apps/doc/FQECPC965633835/OVIC?u=txshracd2512&sid=OVIC&xid=73c0708a. Accessed 4 May 2021. Gale Document Number: GALE|FQECPC965633835