Hey, I'm Matt from YouTube, and I’ve got some answers
to your questions as it relates to coronavirus and your channel.
This is obviously an unsettling time for lots of people around the world
and everyone is feeling the impact in their own way.
I’m hunkered down myself in my home recording this.
Now, before I jump into your questions on how YouTube is adapting to coronavirus,
I want to make sure you understand what’s behind
all the updates you’ve been seeing.
Above all else, YouTube’s priority is providing information
in a responsible way.
You see that in how we’re directing viewers
looking for the latest on coronavirus, using our home page.
That’s also why we’re rolling out monetization for coronavirus videos
as a gradual process, starting with creators
who accurately self-certify their videos and a select number of news partners.
We plan to continue to roll it out to all Creators
in the YouTube Partner Program over the coming weeks.
Another thing that’s top of mind for YouTube is making sure everybody
that works with us, as well as their communities,
are absolutely as safe as possible.
That’s leading to some really tough choices--
especially our need to reduce in-office staffing
in content review centers.
Because of that, you will see an impact
on YouTube’s normal support and service functions.
OK, that said, let’s dive into your specific questions.
First: "What exactly is happening with review centers
and how is that going to affect me as a creator?"
As you probably know by now,
with 500 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute,
we use automated systems to help flag videos that violate
our policies and guidelines,
and those videos then go to human reviewers.
Since more of our reviewers need to stay home right now
for their health and safety, we’re going to have to depend more
on automated systems.
This means creators might see a temporary increase in video removals,
unfortunately including some that may not violate any policies.
You’re going to have to expect more time for reviews,
longer turnaround times for appeals, and slower--and maybe limited--
service and support times.
This includes through email, chat, and social media...
until those teams can return to work.
Next: "Why can’t reviewers just work from home?"
I actually had the same question,
but YouTube has as many teams as possible working from home
to minimize disruption.
But just like we have engineers
who have to physically plug in to special systems to do their jobs,
it’s the same with video reviewers, who are located around the world.
Some teams just can’t work from home
if their work is sensitive or if they live in areas
that don’t have the right technical infrastructure in place.
"Why are the automated systems making so many mistakes?"
YouTube’s systems are amazing at detecting patterns
across enormous amounts of content,
but they have a hard time understanding nuances--
you might agree--
like judging whether a news piece or a parody video is in violation.
That’s why we also built our systems to include expert reviewers,
to bring in human judgement for more complicated content.
"Will I get strikes on content that’s removed during this time?
Can't you just freeze the strike removal system?"
First, know that during this time, you won’t get a strike
when content is removed unless YouTube’s systems have high confidence
that it violates our policies
Also, while the three strike system still applies, if your video gets removed
without a strike, you can keep posting
without worrying about hitting three strikes.
Finally, the same rules apply if you think your video was removed
and shouldn’t have been.
Appeal the decision, and the available teams will take a look.
Again, it just might take time.
"Why are you being stricter about video removals?
Why not just let everything through?"
YouTube has to stay on the side of being careful and cautious here.
The large majority of you upload videos that follow our Community guidelines,
but there are some who don’t.
And, in this time especially, making sure harmful
or misleading info isn’t spread is more important than ever.
"With these new service and support changes,
if my video gets removed, how will I make money?"
You won’t be able to make revenue off of videos that have been removed.
But keep using our appeals system.
It just might take more time.
OK, I want to move on to our rollout of monetization
around videos mentioning coronavirus:
"When will videos about coronavirus start monetizing and why does it take so long?"
When monetizing videos, we have to make sure to keep creator, viewer
and advertiser goals in mind.
We have to be careful and responsible and reward the right content.
That's why teams are starting slowly with creators
who accurately self-certify and certain trusted news partners.
"Why are you only choosing some creators to monetize instead of everyone?
Isn’t that favoritism?"
Again, it’s about being as responsible as possible
during this extraordinary time.
With around three weeks of video uploaded every minute,
we have to move deliberately and carefully to make sure
we expand in a way that helps, not hurts the public conversation.
We're starting with these authoritative news sources,
featuring both creators and media companies.
"How are you fighting misinformation?"
To make sure people can easily find updates on coronavirus sources
they can trust, we're using our homepage
to direct millions of daily viewers to official websites.
They include the World Health Organization,
the Centers for Disease Control,
and other authoritative organizations around the world.
We’re also raising up visibility on the most authoritative channels
and videos covering the coronavirus.
And we’re reducing the visibility of harmful content,
including conspiracy theories, made-up home remedies, among others.
Alright, weird times. I hope this update has been helpful.
And lastly, as a former creator, I just want to say to you other creators,
if you choose to, you have an opportunity to use your voice
to help your community stay calm, and to understand the facts.
You may or may not be able to monetize that effort...
but maybe helping the public could be just as rewarding or even more.
Thanks for watching.
Stay calm, wash those hands, and do use links in the description
for up-to-date information.
Thanks.