Following user feedback, possibly amplified by the issues surrounding the REACT fiasco, where popular YouTube content creators the Fine Bros contemplated trade marking parts of the term for "react" resulting in blanket takedowns of videos uploaded with “Elders React” and “Kids React” keywords, YouTube has now announced that it has added a dedicated team that will more closely track copyright violations for mistakes and appeals.
Google posted about the changes on their help page for YouTube:
Hi,
I've been a member of the YouTube Policy team since 2008 and throughout that time, I've seen how your input has helped YouTube get better. For example, when I started on YouTube Policy, we didn't have an appeals process for video removals. Through user feedback, we realized that we needed to establish a channel for users to alert us to our mistakes. We eventually launched an appeals form for age-restrictions, and just recently launched an appeals form for videos rejected due to policy violations. YouTube isn't perfect, but thanks to your feedback, we are able to learn quickly and get better.
Recently, there's been a lot of discussion about the enforcement of our policies, from video take downs to channel demonetization. We want you to know that we monitor video take downs very closely, and while we haven't seen a big change in the overall rate of removals, it's true that we do make mistakes. For this, we're sorry and we strive to do better by you, our community.
The good news is that the feedback you've raised in comments and videos on YouTube and beyond is having an impact. It's caused us to look closely at our policies and helped us identify areas where we can get better. It's led us to create a team dedicated to minimizing mistakes and improving the quality of our actions. And it's encouraged us to roll out some initiatives in the coming months that will help strengthen communications between creators and YouTube support. We'll also make improvements to increase transparency into the status of monetization claims. And of course, as we work to implement these improvements as quickly as we can, we'll continue to take your feedback seriously.
— Spencer from YouTube's Policy Team
The company has been widely criticized over its handling of copyright violations, despite coming out in support for its users over fair use last year. YouTube channels affected by the complaint system lose out on monetization for weeks at a time which can be detrimental in the long run. Some YouTube users have even contemplated removing their content from the platform altogether.
To address these issues YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki reached out via Twitter thanking the YouTube community, and vowed to listen to creators' feedback.
Source: Google via International Business Times
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