If you haven’t heard by now, YouTube is pretty proud about their new “Heroes” system. And boy oh boy, are YouTubers pissed.
What is YouTube Heroes?
‘YouTube Heroes’ in a nutshell is a program meant to reward volunteer contributors and moderators. It provides incentives for people to help keep the YouTube community clean. That sounds good on paper. So why is the YouTube community so mad about this?
WATCH: Getting started with YouTube heroes via verified YouTube Help YouTube channel
First of all, let’s start by admitting one thing: YouTube is a cesspool. I mean yes, you find a lot of good content. But at the same time, the overwhelming number of videos uploaded every day is impossible to manually sift through. And don’t get me started on the obscene aggregate number of comments spread across the site. Outside of the big YouTube channels, you’ll find a garbage dump of racism, sad humor, sexism, and plain stupidity. Only very rarely do you find any quality content.
Now YouTube’s big wigs probably see themselves as too big to fail. And honestly, it probably is. Even if the top channels quit right now, a power vacuum would just cause new and fresher blood to take the spotlight. Still, YouTube management takes it upon itself to remedy the problems that plague their system, and that thought is respectable in itself. The trouble is, between the vague definitions of the Terms of Service, the inability of the copyright system to account for Fair Use Law, and the potential mass flag abuse of the Heroes system, their solutions just appear completely broken.
YouTube Heroes encourages mass flagging
Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Let’s focus on YouTube Heroes. Now I’ll be honest: I’ll probably sign up and see what exactly a “Hero” can do. I have to keep my mind open. As far as I can tell from the video, the program grants heroes the power to get rid of “inappropriate content,” moderate the comments section, and even contact YouTube staff directly. Again, it all sounds fine… assuming the YouTube community could all be trusted. Here’s some news though: we can’t.
Say, I watch a lot of PewDiePie videos, and I find his channel entertaining. I’d also be aware of the toxicity of conversations in the comments section. As a Hero, I’d be able to get rid of spam and racist comments. Maybe I’d have the power to get rid of reposted PewDiePie content as well. Okay, cool. But say for example, I came across Dilon the Hacker, and as a PewDiePie fan, I find his content insulting. Will I have the power to get rid of his videos too? What about the people who find his videos entertaining? Don’t they have a right to his brand of content?
What about kids who upload Minecraft let’s-plays, or toy unboxing videos? Would their “Heroes” have the power to report non-child friendly content like that of Pyrocynical or LeafyIsHere? Would a troll “Hero” who likes Samsung phones mass flag Apple? This honestly sounds like giving a two year old an AK-47. He gets to point it at whatever he doesn’t like, and get rid of it.
YouTube Heroes makes moderators useless
YouTube’s current moderators system is meant to make managing the comments section easier by having people the content creators trust go through the comments and mark spam or unwanted comments for deletion. When moderators mark a comment for deletion, it simply gets sent to a list for the content creators to judge for themselves. This of course defeats the purpose of having moderators in the first place.
This issue is made even worse by the YouTube Heroes program, because it gives so-called Heroes the tools that moderators need right now. Content creators aren’t happy about this at all, because instead of having moderators the creators trust go through the comments section, random people are going to be given that power over any and every channel.
The worst part is that the YouTube community is completely aware of this as well. It’s YouTube management itself that doesn’t seem to understand how the general community thinks and feels.
WATCH: The world’s biggest YouTuber’s reaction to the YouTube Heroes launch via PewDiePie verified YouTube channel
At the end of the day, YouTube Heroes seems frothing with good intentions. Then again, you know what they say about good intentions and the road to hell. It’s almost funny as well, since every major YouTuber has offered better solutions than this broken system. How will things turn out? Who can say? Maybe it’s not that big of a deal, and we’re all just overreacting. Like every sad change the titan of a website has done, we’ll have to wait and see.