YouTube Content Creators Complain About Monetization Requirement Changes

YouTube content creators are mad at the video sharing company for making some changes to its content monetization requirement, rendering numerous starting and budding YouTubers incapable of earning from their published videos.

On Tuesday, content creators received an email from YouTube, informing them that their channel is no longer eligible for monetization because it failed to reach the new minimum “watch time” requirement. Apparently, the social media giant is now imposing that channels of content creators should have at least 4,000 hours of watch time in a year, which is bad news for those who are just in the early phase of their YouTube career.

Many agitated creators took to Twitter to express their disdain for the new requirement. Others also took a jab at controversial YouTuber Logan Paul for allegedly fuelling the change in the company’s policy.

Previously, YouTube’s minimum requirement in the revenue-sharing program was 10,000 views. The company cited the need to weed out “bad actors” like spammers and impersonators in its implementation of the new rule. YouTube announced the new requirement after cutting business ties with Paul for his scandalous vlog showing a dead person’s body in Japan’s “suicide forest.” The company even removed Paul from its Google Preferred program, which is exclusive to top creators.

Variety reached out to YouTube to ask if the new rule was a product of Paul’s scandal, but the company insisted that it isn’t. A rep said that the change was part of the continuous updates that YouTube is making for its platform in response to advertisers’ concerns.

Part of the changes that YouTube is implementing from now on is its move to manually review all videos in its Google Preferred premium advertising program. “These higher standards will also help us prevent potentially inappropriate videos from monetizing which can hurt revenue for everyone,” chief product officer Neal Mohan and chief business officer Robert Kyncl noted in a blog post.

YouTube is retroactively implementing the new monetization requirement starting on Feb. 20. This means content creator channels that failed to meet the 4,000 hours threshold in the past year will also be affected. Mohan and Kyncl recognized this will affect a significant number of channels; however, they maintained that those affected were only making less than $100 per year and 90 percent of these creators only earned less than $2.50 last month.