YouTube could soon start deleting accounts that it thinks are not 'commercially viable'

YouTube’s terms and conditions have been updated to now include a statement that it can delete, at its “sole discretion”, any Google account that it thinks is not “commercially viable”. Creators are understandably worried as the wording is vague a heavy-handed interpretation of the terms could directly impact their livelihood. Specifically, under the ‘Account Suspension and Termination’ section, Google states: YouTube may terminate your use of the Services, 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. [caption id=“attachment_7632541” align=“alignnone” width=“1024”]  YouTube now reserves the right to ban accounts willy-nilly. Image: Getty[/caption] Furthermore, YouTube may or may not alert the user as to the reason for the termination.  

YouTube has new Terms Of Service on December 10th. This basically says that if channels don't make enough money, THEY WILL POSSIBLY TERMINATE THEM!!!

Looks like I fought to the very end but now I may be close to losing my livelihood, losing my passion, my audience and my... pic.twitter.com/P74uQe8jpW

— Christian Maracle (@MaracleMan) November 9, 2019

Now while this could be interpreted as Google giving itself a legal backdoor in case something untoward happens on the platform, Google’s past actions, particularly with regards to demonetisation on the platform, have left creators with little to no faith that YouTube will ‘do the right thing.’  

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?

Some are also using the opportunity to accuse YouTube of playing favourites with creators with a lot of followers. Such creators do get special privileges from YouTube, and the company has, historically, been lenient with the more popular YouTubers.  

note that if you have 100,000 subscribers, youtube will let you use their studios in LA. it's a completely different lane for people who are successful on these platforms. and a lot of the people who have been successful on youtube have got it from doing reactionary garbage.

— Smiling Apple.jpg (@ellaguro) November 10, 2019

The new terms will come into effect on 10 December.