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3/17/20

Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) updates 16 Recommended Answers 16 Replies 360712 Upvotes

The impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) is evolving every day. Please subscribe to this thread for regular updates on how YouTube is addressing the situation. For more details, please visit here.

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Marissa (TeamYouTube) · Accepted Answer · 2020-03-17T18:01:04.078716+00:00

[17:00 UTC 16 March 2020] Protecting our extended workforce and community: We are taking the steps needed to prioritize the well-being of our employees, extended workforce, and the communities where they live, including reducing in-office staffing in certain sites. We will start relying more on technology to help do some of the work normally done by reviewers, which may result in some accidental removal of content that does not violate our policies. This may affect additional types of YouTube user and creator support and reviews, such as applications for the YouTube partner program or responses on social media.

Marissa (TeamYouTube) · Accepted Answer · 2020-03-17T18:00:41.697105+00:00

[14:40 UTC 16 March 2020] Monetizing COVID-19-related content: We’re expanding the monetization of content mentioning or featuring COVID-19 to more creators and news organizations. Creators will receive a notification in YouTube Studio when this change has gone into effect for their channel. As always, content must follow both Advertiser-Friendly and Community Guidelines.

Marissa (TeamYouTube) · Accepted Answer · 2020-03-17T17:54:01.230123+00:00

[16:00 UTC March 11 2020] Info panels: Starting in February, we launched info panels that drive users to the World Health Organization or to local resources that reflect local government guidelines. The panel will be visible on the YouTube homepage, in Search for queries related to coronavirus, as well as on the watch page for videos related to coronavirus. We’ll donate ad inventory to governments and NGOs in impacted regions to use for education and information.

Marissa (TeamYouTube) · Accepted Answer · 2020-03-17T17:57:58.635729+00:00

[01:45 UTC 16 March 2020] Temporary YouTube Space facilities closure: As a global precaution, most of our YouTube Space facilities have been temporarily closed until further notice. This includes Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, Berlin, and Rio de Janeiro Space. The Tokyo Space is closed due to a planned move. Read more here.

Marissa (TeamYouTube) · Accepted Answer · 2020-03-20T22:12:12.663512+00:00

[22:12 UTC 20 March 2020] Adjusted bandwidth usage: As the COVID-19 situation continues to evolve, more people come to YouTube to find authoritative news, learning content, and make connections. We have only seen a few usage peaks and have measures in place to automatically use less network capacity. In cooperation with governments, we’re temporarily defaulting all traffic to Standard Definition in the European Union (EU), United Kingdom (UK), and Switzerland (CH). This update is slowly rolling out. You can manually adjust the quality of any video you're watching on a computer, TV, or mobile device. We will continue working with member state governments and network operators to minimize stress on the system, while also delivering a good experience for people using YouTube.

[17:00 UTC 24 March 2020] Update on adjusted bandwidth usage: YouTube continues to work closely with governments and network operators around the globe to do our part to minimize stress on the system during this unprecedented situation. We initially announced that we were temporarily defaulting all videos on YouTube to standard definition (SD) in the European Union (EU). Given the global nature of this crisis, we expanded this globally.

Marissa (TeamYouTube) · Accepted Answer · 2020-03-20T21:57:31.875839+00:00

[18:00 UTC 19 March 2020] I’m a YouTube Creator, how can I help? You’ve asked us how you can help with the evolving COVID-19 situation, and as a YouTube Creator, here’s something you can do now → Spread the word to stop the spread. If you choose to use YouTube to share content urging people to #StayHome, consider videos that are helpful, fun and informational and tag #StayHome and ___ #WithMe (e.g. #StayHome and cook #WithMe). For inspiration, check out our channel.

Marissa (TeamYouTube) · Accepted Answer · 2020-03-20T22:01:14.282424+00:00

[16:53 UTC 20 March 2020] Expect Delays - YPP application reviews: As we’ve already shared, we’re taking the steps needed to support the health of our extended workforce and reduce the spread of COVID-19. We’re anticipating significant delays for YouTube Partner Program (YPP) applications.

Marissa (TeamYouTube) · Accepted Answer · 2020-03-20T22:04:56.14283+00:00

[20:20 UTC 20 March 2020] Community posts: Due to the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) on our workforce, the ability to create new Community posts is temporarily unavailable on some channels. This is because we have limited reviewers to ensure the Posts meet our Community Guidelines. Additionally, some Community Posts flagged by users or our automated systems, may not be available on the homepage or in recommendations while we wait for our reviewers to take a closer look.

Marissa (TeamYouTube) · Accepted Answer · 2020-03-23T22:42:35.578072+00:00

[22:40 UTC 23 March 2020] Expect Delays - Shelf enablements & merch reviews: As we take steps to prioritize the well-being of our extended workforce, reviews of items for the merch shelf and related features on YouTube are likely to take much longer than usual. This means:

If you are new to merch on YouTube, you may not be able to enable the merch shelf and related features until our review capacity returns to normal.
If you’re already live with the merch shelf and want to add new merchandise items or modify the name or description of existing ones, you may need to wait longer than usual for those items to be reviewed and approved for display on your channel.

Marissa (TeamYouTube) · Accepted Answer · 2020-03-25T21:55:22.478628+00:00

[21:55 UTC 19 March 2020] COVID-19 news shelf: A COVID-19 news shelf may now show on the YouTube homepage. The shelf includes news videos about COVID-19 from authoritative news publishers and local health authorities on our platform. The content in this shelf is populated algorithmically, using hundreds of signals, including relevance to COVID-19, how up-to-date it is, and region. You may not see the COVID-19 news shelf if a Breaking News or Top News shelf is already showing. You can always dismiss the COVID-19 News shelf on the homepage.

Marissa (TeamYouTube) · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-14T22:46:59.111782+00:00

[21:39 UTC 14 April 2020] YouTube Giving Expansion: We're expanding YouTube Giving to more creators in the US, UK, and Canada. Eligible creators can now fundraise for available US nonprofits, including COVID-19 relief efforts, by adding the donate button to their videos and streams. Creators will be notified in their YouTube Studio dashboard when their channel is eligible. Learn more about the eligibility requirements.

Marissa (TeamYouTube) · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-07T18:28:56.707148+00:00

[18:14 2 April 2020] Monetizing COVID-19-related content: On April 2nd, we expanded monetization of content mentioning or featuring COVID-19 to all creators and news organizations. As always, content must follow both Advertiser-Friendly and Community Guidelines.

Here are some guidelines for uploading COVID-19-related content:

Fact check your work. Use reputable sources from organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and National Health Service to inform your content.
Be sensitive to the fact this is an ongoing global crisis. We ask that if you choose to share COVID-19 related-content, you do so with the best intentions in mind. Please do not leverage this event for the selling or promotion of products or services.
Follow both Advertiser-Friendly and Community Guidelines. All monetizing content is subject to our Ad Friendly Guidelines and Community Guidelines. If your content violates these policies, it will be removed or receive limited or no ads. For specific examples of COVID-19 related content that isn’t eligible for monetization, check out this Help Center article.

If your content doesn’t follow these guidelines, we may limit monetization on your COVID-19-related content, or in rare cases, temporarily disable monetization on your channel. Note: You may still see yellow icons on new uploads as these systems learn and are tuned to allow for broader monetization of coronavirus content. Please appeal if you feel your content is in line with our updated policies so our teams can review and update accordingly.

Marissa (TeamYouTube) · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-07T18:19:12.653526+00:00

[16:00 UTC April 1 2020] COVID-19 health panels: On April 1st, we launched additional health panels for COVID-19 that show in search results for COVID-19 related searches. These panels include text-based health info from the WHO and NHS, and content like symptoms, prevention and treatment. During this time, we want to continue to prioritize local health sources, so you may see both an information panel with a link to a local health authority and the COVID-19 health panel.

Marissa (TeamYouTube) · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-14T22:44:29.88911+00:00

[18:00 UTC 13 April 2020] #WithMe destination page: In the Explore tab of the YouTube app, we've added a #WithMe destination page. This is a page for content featured in YouTube’s #StayHome and ___ #WithMe campaign. It will highlight some of our creators who have used video to help people learn, connect and entertain during this time.

Marissa (TeamYouTube) · Accepted Answer · 2020-05-01T21:05:55.061786+00:00

[23:34 UTC 30 April 2020] COVID-19 health panel self-assessment: To help people make decisions about seeking appropriate medical care, we’ve launched a link to a COVID-19 self-assessment in our COVID-19 health panel in Search. We’re starting by launching this in the U.S., partnering with the Center For Disease Control, and will roll out to more countries soon.

Marissa (TeamYouTube) · Accepted Answer · 2020-05-20T18:18:36.626325+00:00

[17:38 UTC 20 May 2020] COVID-19 Misinformation policy: We have updated our Community Guidelines to include a page on COVID-19 misinformation, which can be found here.