YouTube has issued an update to its terms of service that allows it to place ads on non-YouTube Partner Program (YPP) members and that’s bad for both creators and viewers.

For viewers this means more advertising even on videos from smaller channels which aren’t taking a cut of the advertising you’re being fed.

For creators this means advertising on videos and no share of the advertising.

“You grant to YouTube the right to monetize your Content on the Service (and such monetization may include displaying ads on or within Content or charging users a fee for access). This Agreement does not entitle you to any payments. Starting November 18, 2020, any payments you may be entitled to receive from YouTube under any other agreement between you and YouTube (including for example payments ​under the YouTube Partner Program, Channel memberships or Super Chat) will be treated as royalties. If required by law, Google will withhold taxes from such payments,” reads the newly penned section in the YouTube terms of service.

More advertising on the platform is not great but we do wonder how this whole move will go down.

During the Adpocalyspe (as it was known) advertisers pulled out of YouTube because their adverts were appearing alongside controversial videos.

To address this, YouTube updated its monetisation policy for YouTube Partners. In order to get ads to run on your videos and take a share of those adverts, you would need to adhere to a number of guidelines.

But now it’s not clear how YouTube will select which adverts run on which videos. Will a Pfizer advert appear before an anti-vax conspiracy theory? Will Pepsi be advertised alongside footage of police brutality recorded on a smartphone?

We do hope that YouTube has taken this into consideration and a year from now we aren’t writing about another mass exodus of advertisers from YouTube.

For viewers this looks like a push to get more people to sign-up for YouTube Premium which removes advertising and allows for downloading of videos on mobile. You also get access to YouTube Music and the pleasure of being able to play videos when your screen is locked or you’re browsing Twitter.