YouTube urges content creators to oppose EU copyright legislation

YouTube has urged its content creators – people who make and upload videos on to the site – to register their opposition to changes to copyright legislation approved by the European Parliament.

In an update from YouTube chief executive Susan Wojcicki, the company said article 13, which obligates platforms such as YouTube to filter content for copyright infringement, could have a drastic impact on the internet.

“Article 13 threatens to shut down the ability of millions of people – from creators like you to everyday users – to upload content to platforms like YouTube,” Ms Wojcicki said. “This legislation poses a threat to both your livelihood and your ability to share your voice with the world. And, if implemented as proposed, article 13 threatens hundreds of thousands of jobs, European creators, businesses, artists and everyone they employ.”

YouTube said it would be forced to give content from a small number of large companies priority on its platform as the proving copyright would be too much for most independent creators to instantly demonstrate.

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‘Watch time’

The move comes a matter of months after the video-sharing website introduced more stringent measures for granting access to its monetisation programmes, which were criticised as favouring larger creators and companies. Under the new rules, channels had to have 4,000 hours of “watch time” and 1,000 subscribers in a year before they would be able to make money from their content.

YouTube has since added features such as YouTube Channel Memberships to help boost revenue for its content creators, and it has claimed that thousands had taken advantage of it. It is now also planning to speed up the roll-out of more channels and lower the subscriber threshold from 100,000 to 50,000 subscribers.

The company said it has also taken steps to improve transparency, both with its creators through more regular updates and with advertisers, through channels providing more information about the content of videos.

YouTube said the number of channels with more than one million subscribers had increased by 75 per cent in the past year.

It is now planning to invest $20 million in YouTube Learning to support education focused creators and organisations