- What's this?
A quick random update from YouTube here, it says
they are removing the verification badge
and replacing it, and the replacement is going to be
taken away from thousands of video creators
who already had the verification status.
What?
- [Man] vidIQ
- [Woman] vidIQ
- [Man] vidIQ.com
(slow jazzy music)
- There you go, that fixed it.
Hello, everybody, I'm Rob and welcome back
to vidIQ, educating you on your YouTube journey.
And you know what we haven't heard for a couple of weeks,
the nobody asked for this YouTube update klaxon.
Brace yourselves. (claps)
(klaxon sounds)
All right, sitrep.
Currently, this is the YouTube Verification badge,
and it's available to all YouTube channels
that surpass 100,000 subscribers and apply for it,
certain channels widely recognized outside of YouTube,
and a ton of small channels who got in
under previous rules and hacks.
And just to clarify this verification badge
before we get into the nitty-gritty of this new story.
It is an icon, a graphic, a status symbol.
It doesn't unlock any YouTube tools, it doesn't give you
algorithmic boosts, this icon will not impart
the future success of your channel.
But it is a measure of the success
you've already had on YouTube.
But none of that matters any more because YouTube
are replacing the badge with whatever this is,
the shaded channel-name background?
Artists will get the same treatment as well,
doing away with the musical notes for, yeah,
I really don't know what to call this.
Give us your suggestions in the comments below, please.
YouTube's reasoning behind this graphical change
is that is will bring more consistency to the platform.
This will appear on channel pages, search pages,
and in comments on videos.
And YouTube also say that this will be
more difficult to replicate, so that you can be guaranteed
the channel's identity is official.
Difficult to replicate you say, eh?
(slow jazzy music)
Ah, that's close enough.
Now I'll leave a voting poll up here to let you decide
whether you prefer the new style or the old style.
Me, personally, I prefer the badge iconny type thing,
gives it more of a gamification style on YouTube,
but I think that's probably why YouTube are removing it,
because it want to get rid of these mental health
kind of achievements and things that pressurize
video creators to achieve things that look like
status symbols, and the new version of the verification
badge is much more subtle.
But that's not really why we're all here, is it?
It's more to do with the fact that YouTube are about
to remove this verification badge, status, whatever you want
to call it, from thousands of video creators.
That's because YouTube's verification program
has new requirements.
Requirements that affect those already verified,
and it goes along the lines of this.
Under YouTube's current eligibility requirements,
channels with more than 100,000 subscribers can be verified
regardless of need for proof of authenticity.
That worked well when YouTube was smaller, but as YouTube
has grown and the ecosystem has become more complex,
we need a new way to verify the identity of channels
and help users find the official channel
they are looking for.
YouTube's new criteria prioritizes verifying prominent
channels that have a clear need for proof of authenticity.
YouTube have looked at a number of factors to determine
if a channel meets this criteria, including authenticity.
Does this channel belong to a real creator, artist,
public figure or company it claims to represent?
Prominence, does this channel represent a well-known
or highly searched creator, artist,
public figure or company?
Is this channel widely recognized
outside of YouTube and have a strong presence online?
Is this a popular channel that has a very similar name
to many other channels?
The new criteria will apply for all channels.
Channels that meet the new requirements no longer
need to apply, YouTube will automatically apply
the new verified treatment.
For more information about verification and eligibility,
check out the Help Center, I will leave a link to this blog
post and Help Center link in the video description.
I think the simplest thing to impart from this
is that YouTube have taken a very objective-based goal,
100,000 subscribers, and turned it into something
very subjective, that YouTube control.
This sounds very similar to channels under review
for the monetization program, which makes me a little
nervous, I've got to be honest with you.
I mean, what is the threshold of becoming a popular figure?
Do I need 50,000 Twitter followers to convince YouTube
that we are popular outside of YouTube.
As for popular channels that have very similar names,
well, I'm thinking of renaming our channel to PewDieQ,
Q-Series, or how about WWQ,
the World Watchtime Quantifier.
Now granted, I know I'm being a bit facetious here,
but these new eligibility criteria seem so broad,
and so vague that any video creator with a sizeable channel
who's already in this verification program
probably has no idea what these mean, how to meet these
objectives, or whether or not they're gonna be
in the program in the future, because, to be honest,
when we got this news today, a lot of people
got a very worrying email.
And the first paragraph was akin to throwing dynamite
into a video creator's email box, telling the creator
that due to the eligibility criteria changes,
their channel no longer meets the criteria to be verified.
I mean, to many, that's going to read as you've done
absolutely nothing wrong, but we've decided to change
the rules, and you're being punished for it.
Even the good ship vidIQ was not immune to this change.
When we opened up the creator studio dashboard this morning,
we were greeted by the information pop-up
at the top of this screen, telling us
we were no longer eligible for verification.
But by no means are we the biggest channel to be affected.
There are many channels taking to Twitter
to complain about this.
We're not exactly keeping score, but we've seen channels
with as many as three million subscribers be told
that they're going to lose their verification status.
Others who have been on YouTube for 12 years,
and more, who simply don't feel appreciated by YouTube.
Now a couple of things to note at this point,
the changes don't come into affect until October,
and if you currently do have a verification badge,
and YouTube have told you that it's going to be removed
from your channel, you can appeal that decision.
The form looks like this, and it suggests
the proposed changes will take affect on October the 17th.
You will need to submit your channel URL, state whether
your channel represents a distinct brand, if there are
any channels with similar names to yours,
and then, add links to your social media presence
and news articles about you or your company.
Wow, YouTube's just created a lot of work for not only
creators, but themselves, because, to be honest,
I think every almost single creator who's just been told
that they're gonna be removed from verification status
is going to appeal it.
Because let's face it, most creators will see this
as an insult, a slap in the face, having something
taken away from them, and I've gotta be honest,
I don't think most creators know what they're gonna be
appealing against, and what the eligibility requirements
really are, because they're so broad and vague.
So, yeah, YouTube's manual review team, have fun with that,
and I guess you will be joining us for the future video
when we appeal it and we record our experience.
Come on, surely vidIQ needs to be,
(bell chimes)
(words pop)
(arrow whooshes)
(words thunder)