For a long time now, YouTube content creators have bemoaned the site’s lack of transparency when it comes to outlining its plans to those who create videos for the site. The most recent complaint leveled at the company followed the unveiling of its new “advertiser-friendly content guidelines” which, among other things, stated that the company may remove monetization from videos featuring foul language. This led the owner of YouTube’s most-subscribed channel, PewDiePie, to state that the site “doesn’t care about its creators.” However, now YouTube has stated that it will now offer the ability to converse directly with its employees… to its commenters.
The YouTube comments section is a notorious cesspit of racism, sexism, and other assorted bigoted rhetoric, but with the new YouTube Heroes program, the video sharing site looks to give the people who partake in making its community so toxic an unprecedented level of power. YouTube Heroes is essentially a way for the site to bypass actually hiring moderators, with them ostensibly rewarding the site’s community for flagging content, writing comments, or adding subtitles and captions to videos. Carrying out these tasks will reward Heroes with points, which they can use to increase their level in the program and gain access to features such as exclusive workshops or Heroes video chats. Higher level rewards include the ability to mass flag videos, moderate community content and contact YouTube’s staff directly.
The problem with this is that YouTube is notoriously unreliable when it comes to correctly monitoring the goings-on of its site. We’ve seen popular YouTube channels shut down as a result of a third-party unfairly claiming that a video has breached a copyright law. This means that granting these parties a greater degree of control regarding the goings on of the site has left YouTube creators concerned about the Heroes program, and the damaging impact it could have on their channels.
Following the announcement of the YouTube Heroes program, a number of the site’s content creators expressed their concerns regarding the
YouTube Heroes, a system to earn points for helping YouTube censor things they don’t like, run by all the kids who watch YouTube.
— Matt Watson (@matthwatson) September 21, 2016
YouTube heroes is giving me the worst feeling :/. Why YouTube.
— Mortemer (@Mort3mer) September 21, 2016
So if I have this right, YouTube Heroes is more accurately YouTube Vigilante Mobs?
— ToddInTheShadows (@ShadowTodd) September 21, 2016
As a video maker, I’m always worried about them getting taken down unfairly. Now I have to worry about people disagreeing with me too.
— Mathew Buck (@FB_BMB) September 21, 2016
The main issue many have with this new system is that it grants a great deal of power to people who could well abuse the system. Though YouTube are quite clearly pushing towards a more ad-friendly site, and the monitoring of its community and creators is therefore at the forefront of their concerns, that creators continue to have very little communication with YouTube while Heroes are promised direct communication with YouTube’s staff is understandably frustrating for those who make a living on the site. It remains to be seen if YouTube can manage to prevent YouTube Heroes from becoming a tool for trolls to take down videos and channels that dislike, but given the site’s track record many aren’t hopeful that they will be able to prevent this from becoming the case.
