The Internet has been outraged the last few days over the changes YouTube made to their terms and conditions. The wording of the new document has had people believing that YouTube could and would suspend YouTube channels that were not “financially viable”.
Of course once the truth caught up with the usual Internet FUD it was out of control but the TeamYouTube social media channel have been setting the record straight.
The new terms and conditions state that:
YouTube may terminate your access, or your Google account’s access to all or part of the Service if YouTube believes, in its sole discretion, that provision of the Service to you is no longer commercially viable.
According to YouTube the changes to the terms and conditions were not to bring in extra rules but to make them “easier to read and ensure they are up to date”. The new clause is not new and has always been there but the “enhanced visibility and prominence” has brought it into the spotlight.
Of course people feared the worst thinking that accounts that were not making YouTube any/enough money would be terminated. YouTube on the other hand had a different reason for it — for when they remove features.
Google must have a mantra written somewhere that they love to add features and then remove them at a later date on a whim because that is what the new term is about. It is about YouTube removing features or parts of the service that they deem not financially viable to keep running.
The section of our Terms that you're referring to is *not* about terminating an account if it’s not making enough money – it's about discontinuing certain YouTube features or parts of the service, e.g. removing outdated/low usage features. This does not impact anyone in new ways!
— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) November 11, 2019
Basically it just allows YouTube to remove features that it deems are not working any more and to keep them operating is not worth the hassle and cost. So no, the sky is not falling, YouTube are not going to boot people off their site if they aren’t making money. You can read YouTube’s full terms of service here.
As is so often the case, the Internet had a little outrage over nothing. As you were Chicken Little.
