YouTube has never been good at navigating its way through controversy. Every change that comes to the platform always tends to backfire. The situation at YouTube is dire to say the least. From the algorithm that determines monetization to the copyright claims, no one knows what’s going on.
Content creators have been crying out for meaningful reforms at YouTube for a long time but all of it seems to be falling on deaf ears. If you thought that surely things can’t get worse than this, think again because it has all started to fall apart at YouTube.
Thousands of creators get spammed with false copyright claims
Earlier today, YouTube decided to drop a belated Halloween scare as content creators from around the world got bombarded with multiple false copyright claims on their videos. The claims seem to have affected creators from all over the world, irrespective of their channel sizes. While these are mainly focused towards gaming channels, others have gotten their videos claimed as well.
Oh cool, WMG just claimed my entire Until Dawn series ? pic.twitter.com/MNT1G2uSVn
— ethan (@ethannestor) November 7, 2019
People are actually getting copyright claims for their entire series and playthroughs which is absolutely insane. So, what happened? How did everyone suddenly get copyright claims on multiple YouTube videos all at once?
Also read: YouTube’s new monetization features add new ways to earn
What’s up with the YouTube copyright claims?
Apparently, the claims are coming from KSI, who is one of the biggest content creators on YouTube. While the copyright claim does not take a video down or result in a strike for the channel, it does divert monetization away from that channel to the person who has claimed it, at least until the dispute is resolved.
The copyright claim seems to be going to every single person who has played the same games as KSI has on his YouTube channel which is, to put it mildly, absolutely ridiculous.
While these claims are probably a mistake on the part of the company that does the content ID for KSI’s channel, it is still extremely bizarre to see that YouTube actually allows such things to happen. The whole situation is insane because people are actually losing their money thanks to this shambolic mess that YouTube has created.
At this point, however, it seems like not even YouTube is sure about what it is supposed to be doing. Let’s hope that this is the catastrophe that triggers YouTube to swerve away from the ditch it is driving itself into.