YouTube demonetizing Coronavirus videos and content creators are frustrated over this

The thing that everyone wants to talk about right now is the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus but there is not going to be much content on it on YouTube. YouTubers are avoiding this particular subject and talk about it because they are at risk of having their ads shut off.

YouTube, in the past, has already demonetized its videos that were on some sensitive subject and this time it is Coronavirus. The advertising guidelines of YouTube says that all the sensitive topic which is usually a recent event that involves the loss of human life as a result of the pre-planned malicious attack are not normal for the advertising purposes. These videos are although allowed to remain on YouTube; they simply cannot earn their uploaders any revenue from the ad service of YouTube.

YouTube says that the outbreak of Coronavirus is being considered as the most sensitive topic. Product officer at YouTube, Tom Leung said, “As such, all videos focused on this topic will be demonetized until further notice.” This kind of policy form YouTube is in place to protect the advertisers.

The recent Coronavirus subject meets the policy criteria of YouTube as the COVID-19 disease has infected 95000+ people all across the globe with 3200 deaths so far. Due to the fear of the Coronavirus getting spread further, major tech conferences of the tech giants have either been canceled or postponed. Also, the Disney theme parks located in Asia have all been shut down temporarily and other offices are asking their employees to remain at their homes.

Jonathan Downey, a man who runs his own renowned gaming channel by the name Spawn Wave, made a video recently about the Game Developers Conference being shut down. He also tried to avoid using the word Coronavirus in his video for not letting his video get demonetized but it still did not work. Another YouTuber said that even the videos that have referenced the virus have been it by the platform’s policy. The video gets demonetized even at the mention of the phrase like “Thing that started in China”.

Who is not getting demonetized by YouTube?

Still, this does not mean that everyone is getting demonetized. News channels tend to run the videos often about sensitive topics along with the ads that are able to play because they are providing these ads themselves. This issue has frustrated other YouTubers in the past as how YouTube gives news channels this kind of preferential treatment.

This latest development in policies of YouTube has allowed for the YouTube community to have a clear differential picture between the whitelisted or the premium tier users who bring their own advertisements and videos from the regular creators.

YouTube told tech media that there are some strict policies in play that are governing as to kind of videos are allowed on the platform to have the ads and they said that these policies are applied without any kind of bias. The company also said that if a channel of a creator is dedicated to covering the sensitive subjects, they can still monetize the videos by even making videos about subjects like the Coronavirus.

YouTube is also looking out for their advertisers as the company made a sum of about 15 billion dollars from its advertisement revenue alone back in 2019. The key to this revenue generation is to work with the advertisers and where their commercials are placed.