YouTube is taking verified status away from many creators

YouTube is looking to update its verification process and it’s about to get harder to have the verified status on YouTube.

Having 100,000 subscriber is no enough to earn a channel the verified status. Inside, YouTube is looking to verify based less on a creators subscriber counts and more on their authenticity and prominence. YouTube is making its verification process more in line with other social media platforms, which could lead to more problems.

Some creators may lose their verified status after the change

Now that YouTube is looking for more than just subscriber counts to be verified on YouTube, some creators will lose their verified status. Here’s a quick breakdown of what YouTube is going to look for when verifying a channel:

Authenticity: YouTube will look at the channel and ensure it belongs to the real creator, public figure or company.

Prominence: Additionally, YouTube will look at the channel and determine if it represents a well-known or highly searched creator, artist, public figure or company. It will also determine if the channel is widely recognized outside of YouTube and has a strong presence online. Lastly, YouTube will see if a popular channel has a very similar name to many other channels.

Channels that meet the new requirements won’t need to reapply for verification. They will automatically have the new verified status when it’s rolled out in late October. However, those that don’t meet the requirement will receive a notice. They will have to appeal if they disagree.

New icons

While the process for determining if a channel is verifiable or not is the big news here, YouTube is also changing the verified status symbols. Instead of the current checkmark and descriptor separate from a channel’s name, YouTube will now have a gray background behind the channel’s name. This should make it harder for channels to fake verification.

YouTube channel names grey background for verification status
Channel names will now have a grey background behind the text to show they’re verified

There is already outrage

The creator community are not happy with these changes and understandably so. Creators, all varying from 100K subs to even 750K subs, have been uploading videos telling their fan bases they received an email from YouTube telling them they are losing their verified status. Many of the creators have large fan bases and have worked hard to grow their communities—some spending nearly a decade doing so. Losing their validation and recognition of their hard work is in many ways a slap in the face to those creators.

While it’s understandable YouTube wants improve the verification process, it’s leaving a lot of deserving creators high and dry. Now, these channels have the option to appeal before their verification symbol is taken away in October. However, we don’t know how accessible YouTube’s verification stamp will be.

You can read the full press release about the change here.

Image courtesy: Ninetofive.me

Sean Berry
Sean Berry
Sean Berry is Videomaker's Managing Editor.

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