After years of allowing people like me to have a YouTube channel where I decided if I wanted ads on my videos or not, YouTube has decided that they’ll put ads on them anyway. This is a company that in the 4th Quarter of 2020 made $6.89 Billion.
So I wanted to take a moment to re-assure all of you that:
1. I did not agree to these ads.
2. I am not getting any money for the ads being placed on my videos.
3. I do not endorse any person, idea, or product that is getting advertised alongside my videos.
Specifically, this is what they emailed many of us:
“YouTube’s right to monetize: YouTube has the right to monetize all content on the platform and ads may appear on videos from channels not in the YouTube Partner Program.”
Their full terms of service can be found here:
One last thing, YouTube is within their rights to do this. But this is a moment for all of us to remember that social media is private property. These institutions (they’re not fun start-ups anymore) can change their platforms and their rules at a moments notice.
So I encourage all of you who work a lot through social media to build your own platform and email lists to stay in touch with people. Because one day Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, or another of these digital landlords supports you, and then the next day they change something so that you lose credibility or connections.
1 Comment
Jim, is there another platform you can use?