YouTube CEO provides final updates for the year

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki outlines the three key priorities of the platform and provides more updates.

Supporting creator and artist success

Wojcicki addresses one of the most controversial issues brought up by creators around copyright claims.

The company has changed the policies involving financial strings on manual claiming of short music clips used in monetized videos. The claims that often resulted in all revenue going to the rightsholder, regardless of the length of the music claimed.

The changes made removes the financial incentive to claim very short and unintentional music use.

The platform required timestamps for all manual claims so creators know precisely which part of their video is being claimed, and have made updates to the platform's editing tools so creators can easily remove manually claimed content from their videos.

YouTube is also introducing a new YouTube Studio and will be moving majority of the creators to the new studio, early next year.

Creators will be individually notified in advance of a change to their access. The new studio includes a new dashboard, analytics, and real-time performance metrics.

Wojcicki mentions that the Classic Studio was built on older technology and doesn't allow bug-fixing or introduction of new features.

The platform is expanding the launch of Super Stickers to eligible creators in 60 countries around the world. They are also running experiments to match advertising with edgier content.

For instance, matching a marketer looking to promote an R-rated movie, with creators whose content fits their ads.

This would bring more ads on yellow icon videos which can only host limited advertising due to the nature of its content.

There is also a policy update coming for gaming creators that differentiates between real-world violence and gaming violence. The new policy will have fewer restrictions on violence in gaming.

Also Read: YouTube updates shoppable ads

Improving communication and engagement

The platform is expanding the Self Certification pilot next year to hundreds of thousands of YouTube Partner Program (YPP) creators, to aid creators have a better understanding of guidelines. The program lets creators self-report how their video complies with ad policies.

Wojcicki acknowledges the inconvenience creators face when the platform runs experiments or makes changes. She mentions, "We’ll do a better job of communicating with you about why we’re undertaking these efforts and how they might impact you. Please remember that our experiments enable us to ultimately have a better outcome for all viewers and creators."

Living up to the responsibility

Wojcicki discusses policy changes and maintaining the balancing the responsibility to protect the community with the responsibility to protect freedom of expression and more.

Currently, the platform is updating harassment policy guidelines, whilst talking with creators to make sure important issues are addressed.

They're also changing how data for children’s content is treated on YouTube as part of a settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the New York Attorney General that addresses COPPA concerns.

Now creators must designate whether their content is made for kids by changing the audience settings. Certain features such as comments and personalized advertising will no longer be available on content made for kids.

She further provides updates to the changes resulting from policymakers and legislators who are translating Article 17 and Wojcicki's conversations with them.

The platform was able to make improvements to the legislation such as securing liability protections they make efforts to match copyright material with rights owners.

They'll continue to provide updates on the copyright reform. They expect some early drafts of the new legislation in 2020, but it will take a few years for each EU country to implement Article 17.

Lastly, Wojcicki appreciates the good work done by creators such as Mr. Beast and Mark Rober and everyone inspired by their #teamtrees challenge to help plant 20 million trees by January 2020.