
Google Plans to Vet YouTube Premium Video Content - tareqak
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-11/google-is-said-to-plan-vetting-of-youtube-premium-video-content
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mc32
I don't know how many people (contributors) they have in these preferred
channels --maybe they have overwhelming numbers so they have to throw
unspecialized bodies at the issue.

My feeling is that at some point they will manage the top tier of their
premium contributors more like traditional content production. Idea people,
writers, producers and someone who vets the output yay/nay and takes full
responsibility for the release of the content. None of this "the views of
[contributor] do not represent the values of our company" BS.

Of course, that means more money, less profit but would make things for
advertisers palatable.

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slivym
This seems like a defensive no brainer for youtube though. The classic cable
business model is to get subscribers by financing top content that brings in
viewers. If Disney opened a 'Mickey Tube' tomorrow with exlusive access to all
the late show clips, several well-financed existing youtubers then how much of
youtubes viewers would pack up and move over?

So really this looks like Youtube maturing into a more traditional media
business model. Of course they still have the risk that they suffer from the
myspace phenomenom. Not sure they're really preparing or considering that.

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blakesterz
"the company recently announced it will have 10,000 employees focused on the
task"

I can't wrap my head around that number. How can that be true?

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oh-kumudo
Contractor, like Call center employees. Probably from outsourcing firms. And,
this number seems...low? Considering the sheer amount of videos upload even
just from partners.

I guess those platforms are growing so large and influential, censoring is
inevitable now.

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ribosometronome
Casually calling contractors employees to the press seems like a decent way to
open yourself up to a employment status lawsuits.

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gtirloni
The "employee" word is not mentioned in Google's post a single time.

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dbbk
This is a strange headline, because the whole premise of Google Preferred is
that it IS vetted. Now Google is admitting that it... wasn't? Or at least
rarely.

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slivym
Google's entire tradition of content moderation has been to have accounts with
privileges and then add/remove those based on content produced. Google
Preferred wasn't a set of videos you could advertise on, it was a set of
content creators you could advertise with.

There was a watershed early last year when they realized that a relatively
tiny number of videos could be picked up by traditional media and used to beat
up youtube in the press. So now they're moving away from that. They're going
to moderate _every video_.

That started with the low cost: everything monetized goes through the iron
fist of the Youtube demonetization wizard.

Now for the high end content they can't treat people like that - because top
talent has leverage. So the more the content is worth, the more they'll spend
on QA. The fundamental doesn't change though - they're moderating the content
not the creator anymore.

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kazinator
YouTube.

Well, when we say "you", we mean more like "we".

Or, if you prefer, think of "you" as "TV". TV Tube!

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ronilan
I’m not a vet, so I won’t comment on the subject itself, but on a related
note, I always found “Google Preferred” to be a bizarre naming choice.

Why would a global, and generally loved brand, use the name of another to
market a product?

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fixermark
YouTube is owned by Google.

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donatj
Even so. It’s a strange use of branding. It would be like Beats having a line
of “Apple Preferred” headphones.

In the eyes of many consumers they’re unrelated because they’ve up until now
pushed very separate branding.

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hobofan
> In the eyes of many consumers they’re unrelated because they’ve up until now
> pushed very separate branding.

I mean we are both speculating here unless there is some data to prove our
claims, but I would say that Google dropped any attempt at keeping the brands
too separate when they introduced the Google+ comment section.

The "Google preferred" also makes sense because all advertising that happens
on Youtube is under the Google AdWords brand. There is no Youtube Ads, only
Google Adwords for video.

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lathiat
This might sound silly, but working in these content moderation jobs must be
painful -- dealing with a lot of constant negativity if not abuse, etc.

In some ways, moderating all the good content might give you a break.. I
imagine they probably won't cross with other such jobs though.

As a society, online really seems to bring out some of the worst in people;
and I figure there is not a set of valued peers around you to try and
influence your behaviour for the better.

