YouTube’s new TOS is coming for the slop.
Whatcha gonna do now?
As of July 15, Google (parent company of YouTube) will start making it harder to monetize what they call “mass-produced or repetitive” content. In other words: AI spam, faceless rehashes, and all the infinite sludge polluting your recommended feed.
Is this a bold step toward de-slopifying the internet?
A strategic move by Big Tech to bring all marketing in-house?
Or just another late-stage capitalism trick where they sell you the shovel, then fine you for digging?
Tech journalist Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson didn’t mince words:
“Such content has spread cancerously across the video platform as pseudo creators seek to make a quick buck.”
Hear, hear?
I’m of two minds here:
1. Yes. Clean it up.
Get your AI bands off my playlist. I miss analog imperfection. I miss owning things. I miss actual humans telling me things.
2. But also… what the f*ck else are we supposed to do?
You automated the workforce into a corner. You flattened job categories. And now you’re shocked when people try to use the same tools to make something back?
As a human, I love the idea of a slop filter.
As a realist, I see the problem: YouTube now gets to decide what counts as “authentic.” They can demonetize anything that feels off-brand, off-message, or just… off.
Free speech, anyone?
This shift could have real chilling effects on creators – especially the weird ones, the independent ones, the not-easily-classified ones.
July 15 is D-Day for the 1-click marketers, the faceless narrators, the Eastern European automation bros, and that one guy you knew in college who’s suddenly everywhere.
Will it clean things up? Or just reshuffle who gets paid?
We’ll see.
Hold on to your butts.
