YouTube

Since its full launch in April, YouTube has been actively expanding its cord-cutting live television service with new cities, apps, and features. A new report today claims that YouTube TV has amassed just over 300,000 paying subscribers.

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Frequently marred by the presence of inappropriate content, YouTube now plans to be more proactive in policing its network. A report today revealed plans for an “Intelligence Desk” as part of an “early detection” initiative to remove videos before they spiral into controversy.

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YouTube has been struggling with a lot of issues in the past several months, and most recently, its biggest issue has surrounded one of its biggest content creators — Logan Paul.

In response to that and dozens of other issues that have been coming up for years on the platform, YouTube has made some big changes. One of those changes that will have the farthest reaching effects are the new qualifications for channel monetization, and they’re just a huge slap in the face to up and coming creators. Let me explain.

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In recent months, YouTube has faced criticism over controversial videos, with advertisers complaining about ads being displayed over questionable content. In response, YouTube is again raising the threshold for monetizing videos, while increasing manual review and promising more transparency.

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Earlier today, YouTube for Android jumped to version 13.0 (from 12.x) and with it hints at a number of new upcoming features in development. This includes a long-awaited dark theme, Incognito mode, and other changes that are already live in the app.

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With Amazon announcing that it would begin selling Chromecasts, it seemed that the retailer and Google were finally de-escalating long-running tensions. However, it seems that a deal hasn’t been reached in time as Amazon is telegraphing the impending 2018 block of YouTube to all Fire TV users.

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Recent years have seen the rise of smartphone videos shot in vertical orientation due to live streaming and other mediums. Back in June, YouTube announced that its Android and iOS apps would better support these experiences. This dynamically adapting video player is now beginning to rollout for the latter platform.

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YouTube has a massive community of users, and that’s a good thing. However, it’s also a double-edged sword. YouTube being such a large and widely used platform essentially means it goes unchallenged, leaving creators and companies no alternative when things don’t go their way. Amazon recently faced a problem with that, and now it seems the company may have plans to take on the platform…

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Earlier this month, more details emerged about the long rumored subscription service from Google that would merge Play Music and YouTube. Negotiations with music labels were cited as an obstacle at the time, but today, YouTube has struck the necessary deals.

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In early December, Google and Amazon’s product dispute escalated resulting in the removal of YouTube from the Echo Show, but more importantly Fire TV. Today, the online retailer appears to be acquiescing to Google’s complaints over the lack of Chromecast devices on sale.

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For the past year, Google has been rumored to be working on a new music streaming service. In February, the Play Music and YouTube teams were combined, with the merger of the two products actually confirmed in July. A new report today shares more details, including a possible launch date.

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With 2017 ticking away, YouTube has posted its annual Rewind mashup for the year to recap the top videos, events, and more. This video features many hit moments and contains the largest amount of talent of any Rewind. The Google site has also revealed this year’s top 10 trending videos.

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Back in November, YouTube finally returned to the Echo Show as a basic web wrapper of the desktop site. Today, tensions between Google and Amazon have escalated, resulting in the removal of YouTube from the screened Echo device and more critically the Fire TV line of streaming devices

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Following reports of sexualised videos of children attracting hundreds of comments from suspected pedophiles, YouTube has announced that it will be boosting its content moderator team to 10,000 people – but only by the end of 2018. The current team is reported to be around 8,000 people.

A Times investigation first uncovered the scale of the problem eleven days ago, with volunteer flaggers claiming that YouTube wasn’t taking the problem seriously …

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