YouTube making the same mistake as in 2016?

Recently I have found many YouTube videos with misleading metadata and/or inappropriate content to be monetized with AdSense. And from the looks of it, a question arises – Is YouTube making the same mistake again as in 2016? I have been compelled to bring this up because most of the videos I’m talking about contain sexually provocative scenes, which in turn carries a negative message for YouTube’s ad-campaign.

Let me put a few examples and make the whole thing clear. The examples I’m about to present here use Bengali as the video language and that of the title. So many of you may not understand it directly; nevertheless you can take help from Google translate. Also before watching these videos for exemplary purpose, make sure that you are 18+.

According to the title of the above video, the actress Srilekha will show off her ‘body’ to whoever would like to see that. I instantly got interested upon seeing the title and clicked on the video to watch it. I came to know that it is a news-based video. According to the information provided inside the video, the actress is single now and would consider anyone who’d like to propose to her. Clearly it’s not the same thing as ‘showing off body’ to strangers. So the bottom line is this video is using misleading title. It has misleading and sexually provocative thumbnail too.

I found the view monetized and this was a suggested video on a newly created YouTube account which I had never used before to watch videos. Shockingly enough, YouTube now-a-days has started to suggest sexually provocative videos to even brand-new viewers. Had I previously watched such videos using this account, I wouldn’t be surprised to be suggested to watch same type of videos. (This post is titled ‘Is YouTube making the same mistake as in 2016?’)

It is obvious that YouTube now is kind of liberal when it comes to title and thumbnail, all they stress on is ‘inner’ content. Since this particular video presented above has no inappropriate content inside it, it is still intact (monetized and not age-restricted). If it contained inappropriate or sexually explicit content inside it, it would certainly have been age-restricted, even removed from YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6ZjajszcXo

Here’s another misleading video I just found monetized. According to the title, the video is supposed to show physical intimacy between nephew and mami (wife of maternal uncle). But there is no such thing inside the video itself. I watched the full video and here’s what I saw: the nephew decently proposes to mami without touching her. (This post is titled ‘Is YouTube making the same mistake as in 2016?’)

He argues that mama (maternal uncle) is abroad for the last couple of years and there’s nobody to physically accompany her. Then mami says it’s wrong and promises to find him a beautiful bride. NOT a single physical touch happens in the video! And the people you get to see in the thumbnail aren’t the ones found in the video; it’s just a randomly collected sexually provocative thumbnail. So you understand that this video too uses misleading title and thumbnail. Videos like this should definitely be reported. Here’s a nice article which describes how to report a YouTube video:

How to report a YouTube video: In case you found infringing videos on YouTube

You can also check out our previous posts on misleading metadata:

Metadata: When it becomes misleading and leads your YouTube account to termination

Examples of misleading metadata: Be able to identify the infringing videos on YouTube

Examples of misleading metadata – episode 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLQhvuICa84

Here’s another creepy video from the same channel and this one is monetized too. As the title suggests, it is supposed to be a secretly recorded video based on the physical intimacy between a male doctor and a female patient. As a young man, I was provoked to see the title and clicked on the video. I watched it fully, but found no intimate scene, except for a ‘wink’ from the woman’s eye and some double meaning words from the doctor’s mouth. Surely it’s a misleading video, because it uses misleading title. I wouldn’t bring this up in the first place, if it weren’t monetized.

The mistakes YouTube made in 2016

I hope you read my article on ‘Google’s latest condition’ which I published in the month of January this year. If you did not, then you can now check that out:

YouTube ads crisis: YouTube/Google’s latest condition

This particular post describes YouTube’s miserable conditions on ad campaigns. The advertisers stopped putting ads on YouTube because they thought their ads were not properly placed. Many of their ads were placed on videos with provocative content and misleading metadata. Thus their brand image were damaged. (This post is titled ‘Is YouTube making the same mistake as in 2016?’)

The thing is that the advertisers were actually correct in their standpoint: Google/YouTube really manipulated the ad serving system. May be they had too many ads to serve, so they included the videos that violated community guidelines of YouTube. The YouTubers and YouTube itself might have been benefited by these unscrupulous activities, but the advertisers were despaired. That’s when they decided to quit on YouTube.

Both YouTube and YouTubers thought that they would get away with this. But when advertisers put pressure on YouTube, they had no choice but to get rid of the videos and channels that didn’t strictly follow the community guidelines. And in the surge, many innocent (specially new) YouTubers were caught. As a result hundreds of thousands of YouTube channels were terminated in just a few months of time. (This post is titled ‘Is YouTube making the same mistake as in 2016?’)

We’re happy for YouTube that recently they seem to recover and finally settle on ad service. Because most advertisers that previously quit on YouTube have started to come back and put ads. And once again YouTube is earning billions of dollars through its ad campaign.

Now the question is whether or not they’re aware of these infringing videos which are getting AdSense ads. I wonder if YouTube is doing it purposely. May be once again they have too many ads to handle, so they have decided to put ads even on sexually provocative and misleading videos. If they commit the same mistake as in 2016, they’ll be penalized once again. And this time they may never recover and lose their ‘3rd’ world rank as a site once and for all. Sadly enough, we YouTubers will be able to do nothing about it!

What about you? Do you think YouTube making the same mistake as in 2016?

If you have been using YouTube for a while for purposes like entertainment or YouTubing, let us know what you think on this particular issue. Did you find videos with sexually explicit content to be monetized with Ads? What about now? Do you still find YouTube videos with misleading content to be popular and served ads? Let us know about it in the comment box.

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