Creator Verification Gets Tougher On YouTube

YouTube has been knee-deep in controversy for a long time now because of its content issues and the company is now tightening its grip on verification badges to examine the issues in a better way.

YouTube has announced that the new policies will be focusing on verifying prominent channels that have a clear need for proof of authenticity. The former company policy was to verify any channel that has more than 100,000 subscribers. According to the company, the changes will be effective from next month.

There is tremendous make-over happening on YouTube. The company is altering the look of verification badges. While earlier it was just a checkmark but now the site will show a gray background behind a creator’s name.

A blog post said, “Through our research, we found that viewers often associated the checkmark with an endorsement of content, not identity,” Jonathan McPhie, a YouTube product manager. He also added that the latest changes were to “reduce confusion about what being verified means.”

Millions of YouTubers were outraged by this action as many of them lost their verified status. YouTube responded to this by tweeting that “If you received an email that your channel will no longer be verified, this was just an advanced notice & you can appeal.”

The latest policy by YouTube comes as various scandals are thrown at the company for recommending content related to extremism and child exploitation. The IT services giant (Google) owned company is now reforming policies to adhere to the newer demands.