On March 11^th, the CEO of YouTube Susan Wojcicki announced a change in policy regarding COVID-19. In an article titled “YouTube will now allow creators to monetize videos about coronavirus and COVID-19” Sarah Perez explains how YouTube has a “sensitive events” policy with the purpose of protecting advertisers from being associated with horrific events and issues such as violence, natural disasters, and global health crises – like the coronavirus. With the ban in place, the article emphasizes two main issues.

 1)  YouTube was putting a restriction on informative and newsworthy videos.

2) Trustworthy news organizations could not generate any revenue from their videos even though they were covering the topic responsibly.

However, YouTube’s advertising guidelines used to prevent monetization of videos mentioning the coronavirus, but that is not the case anymore. So, is it better to allow videos regarding the coronavirus to be monetized?

Well, the article brings up both positive and negative aspects regarding the change of policy. In favor of the change, Wojcicki says that “It’s becoming clear this issue is now an ongoing and important part of everyday conversation,” and further explains how YouTube want to make sure news organizations and creators can continue to produce videos of quality addressing the current situation.

On the other hand, the article also discusses the issues related to the fact that YouTube ads will be enabled on news partners and creators who “accurately self-certify.” The problem with this is that this self-certifying process “opens up monetization to any creator using YouTube’s self-labeling system, not just news organizations or trusted health authorities.” This means that creators basically can publish what they want, including misleading and dangerous advice. The article states how there already is a huge amount of misleading information regarding the coronavirus across social media and how the crisis is now not just an epidemic, but an “infodemic.”

I understand YouTube’s decision to change the policy as people are looking for resources to find comfort and assistance, and informational videos about the crisis play a major role in this. While I would agree that there is a problematic situation with creators developing an “infodemic”, I would also argue that it is up to each individual to take responsibility for what sources and information they choose to believe.

Find the full article here: https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/11/youtube-will-now-allow-creators-to-monetize-videos-about-coronavirus-and-covid-19/