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Don’t lose your YouTube channel to hackers

It seems like every couple weeks we hear a story about a major YouTube channel getting hacked and having their content deleted. Thankfully, Google provides a number of ways creators can prevent this from happening. However, as channels grow, they tend to add channel managers to their team, increasing vulnerability with every addition. 

The most common way channels are hacked is by the hacker acquiring a YouTube channel manager’s login and password. They do this by phishing, planting a keylogger, or even using a brute force attack.

Perhaps the strongest form of hack protection is two-factor authentication. YouTube’s version works by sending a notification to the user’s mobile phone whenever they try to log into YouTube or any other Google service. It then asks the user to verify that it’s them who is trying to log in. For this, you’ll need to match a number that appears on both screens.

With two-factor authentication, any attempt to log in to an account, even with the correct password, requires access to a user’s mobile device.

So setting up two-factor authentication as the sole person with access to a YouTube channel is a pretty fool-proof way of protecting it. However, complications arise when users allow others access to their channel.

Let’s say your channel is run by you and three friends. To be able to manage the channel — i.e., upload and edit videos — your friends need at least a ‘Manager’ level role. Unfortunately, this role also gives them permission to delete videos. You can probably see where this is going.

There are two problems here. First, if you’re not using a G Suite account to manage everyone’s accounts, you’ll have to rely on the word of your three friends that they’re using two-factor authentication. Second, the more people you add to your team, the more likely someone will try to assure you they’re using two-factor authentication when they’re really not.

It only takes one Channel Manager without two-factor authentication to make a channel vulnerable to being hacked.

The only real way to maximize security is to administer logins yourself with a G Suite account. You’ll start by registering your domain name, then administer your team new Google accounts. Inside G Suite is an option to require two-factor authentication in order to log in to those accounts. Once you do all this, you can remove every Channel Manager account which you don’t directly administer and add those that you do.

Hacked channels is a serious problem that’s worse for small channels than large ones. If PewDiePie gets hacked and his videos are deleted, you can bet YouTube will prioritize getting his channel back online as soon as possible. But YouTube has over 31 million channels. How likely do you think it is that they’ll make it a priority to address hacks on the lower-end of the subscriber spectrum? As someone who runs a YouTube channel, it’s in your best interest to take precautions to make sure it never happens to you.

YouTube might let you sell ad space on your videos

YouTube is working on feature to allow creators to sell ad space on videos

There’s talk at YouTube headquarters about allowing creators to sell ad space on their own videos. It’s an idea that might actually be implemented really soon.

According to Tom Leung, YouTube’s director of product management, “We’re experimenting with a new way for creators to sell advertising to brands with whom they already have a relationship.” He goes on to say that YouTube is very aware creators want this as a feature or are at least interested in it. Lastly, he confirms the feature is currently being tested right now in “a very small pilot.” You can hear his comments in full in a recent Creator Insider video.

Video courtesy: Creator Insider

What we know about creator sold ad space on YouTube so far

Essentially, this feature seems to be a creator version of YouTube’s partner-sold ads. Major media companies like NBC and others can control their own YouTube ad inventories. Those in the partner-sold ads program must be reputable, distribute their own content across multiple platforms, and have the company infrastructure to support ad sales. Also, those in the partner program are allowed to sell advertising even on videos that are demonetized.

It will be interesting to see if this is implemented in a creator version of this feature. Creators in the program could still make money even if videos have been demonetized. The marketers just need to be okay with showing ads on their channel.

Will creators be able to sell ads to brands?

One very interesting piece in the announcement is when Leng specified creators can sell ads to brands “with whom they already have a relationship.” This implies YouTube doesn’t want creators to find new or unfamiliar brands and offer them ad space. However, it isn’t clear what “relationship” means. It might mean brands might have to have invested in them prior.

There is a good possibility too that creators will have to disclose if they sell an ad. YouTube’s current guidelines require creators to disclose they have a material relationship with a brand. It might require the same or more disclosure when creators sell ad space on their own videos.

We will update you once we learn more about YouTube’s plan for this feature.

Music industry rips off YouTube musicians with aggressive claim tactics

Music labels are taking advantage of YouTube musicians

Copyright trolling is a real issue. YouTube’s copyright claim tools are frequently abused by music publishers and record labels. Many are looking to profit off YouTube musicians anyway they can, knowing they won’t be challenged.

The sad truth is music publishers actually have people hired to scour the internet looking for any snippet of copyrighted music they can claim and make a profit from. Even YouTubers using the music under fair-use are often still hit with copyright claims. While creators can challenge the claim, YouTube has a rule where if you lose a copyright challenge, you will receive a channel strike. If you receive three strikes, your entire channel will be taken down for good. Even then, you can continue to dispute these claims, but it is often a long and arduous process.

Rick Beato shines a light on the fear scam headed by the music industry

In a recent video posted to his channel, Rick Beato discusses this issue. He, like many others, has experienced first hand the tactics used by the music industry. In one of his educational videos Beato demonstrates the John Lennon and Paul McCartney song, “She Said She Said.”

The video was quickly claimed, demonetizing the video. However, Beato was operating in fair use. Under fair use, you can use excerpts from copyrighted material if the sole purpose of its use is to educate. These kinds of claims are making it really hard for YouTube musicians to educate on the platform, Beato points out.

Video courtesy: Rick Beato

In Beato’s case, he was hit with a sharing revenue claim. That means Sony’s record label keeps about 66 percent of the revenue made by the video. Many of these claims are being sent manually. You can clearly see in the summary of Beato’s claim that the video was manually identified by the claimant. This means the record label was looking for videos like Beato’s to make money off of them.

“… somebody at Sony Publishing is looking at YouTube channels, specifically ones with a lot of subscribers, to see if there is any type of copyright claims they can make so they can rip off the YouTuber,” says Beato. “How do I know this? Because I’ve talked to people that work at all the different publishers.”

The music industry is looking to make money off YouTubers

In his video, Beato reveals he has talked to many different music publishers and knows that they make a lot of money off of copyright claiming YouTubers. “I have friends that work at labels that tell me ‘oh man, we make so much money from YouTubers because they can’t fight this stuff because they don’t dare fight it’” says Beato. That is the sad truth because if a YouTube musician’s channel, or any channel, fails too many times to appeal a copyright strike, they will lose their channel.

YouTube has made some effort to prevent this kind of abuse from record labels, but clearly it hasn’t done enough. In no way are we saying there should be no kind of copyright regulation on YouTube, but when the video comes under fair use, it’s a clear abuse of power without any kind of realistic recourse for creators.

Imint Vidhance Selfie Mode ensures you stay in frame

Imint announces Selfie Mode in use

The Imint Vidhance Selfie Mode solution claims it will always keep vloggers in frame. Selfie videos can tend to be hard to control, so this should make it a lot easier.

The Vidhance Selfie Mode uses both artificial intelligence and facial recognition to make sure your face stays in frame even while on the move. To create this solution, Imint teamed up with Qualcomm to create something that can automatically detect your face. After it detects your face, it applies algorithms to track its movement and continuously reposition you in the frame.

“Imint’s groundbreaking new Vidhance Selfie Mode combines artificial intelligence and facial recognition to help ensure a user stays in-frame when video chatting, recording Instagram stories, and more,” Imint says.

Imint Selfie Mode in use
Vidhance Selfie Mode should always keep you in frame

Also announced alongside Vidhance Selfie Mode

Alongside Vidhance Selfie Mode, Imint announced two other smartphone solutions that help stabilize video and keep cameras aligned.

Vidhance Super Stabilization

Vidhance Super Stabilization is made to bring action camera stabilization to smartphones, according to Imint. It uses both wide-angle and high-resolution sensors. They together should create more stable results. Vidhance Super Stabilization can also manipulate more of the original video to compensate for excessive motion.

Vidhance MCT

Vidhance MCT was designed to address challenges posed by integrating multiple cameras in mobile devices.

“For example, as a smartphone transitions from its built-in zoom lens to its wide-angle lens, there is often a jump in both the X and Y directions. Vidhance MCT smooths the transition from camera to camera using a proprietary self-calibration algorithm that constantly learns from the images it processes,” says Imint.

Additionally, when manufactures use multiple cameras, there can be natural misalignment between each. You will have to manually align, but even then the camera can fall out of alignment. Vidhance MCT will automatically align each camera.

Where can you get these solutions?

All three of these solutions will debut in the Vidhance 3.6 software release.

Ninja isn’t helping Mixer grow its audience

It was a huge deal when Mixer stole Twitch’s top streamer Ninja. However, despite landing this huge deal, among others, Mixer isn’t growing its audience much.

The Microsoft Mixer video-game streaming service, even with Ninja, Shroud and KingGothalion streaming exclusively on their platform, just can’t seem to increase its audience. To be clear, the company isn’t losing its audience, rather it is barely making any growth. It’s staying fairly stagnant in its popularity and usage. For instance, its overall watch time is only up 2% since January 2019, according to StreamElements and Arsenal.gg. Watch time is very important to streaming services. It is a huge hit to Microsoft if it only increases 2% after spending a ton of money getting top streamers to exclusively stream on their platform.

How does Mixer stack up to every other platform?

Though Mixer is plateauing, that doesn’t seem to be the case for many other streaming services. Facebook Gaming has seen a huge growth in its watch time. Facebook saw a 340% increase in the growth of its hours watched. That’s more than quadrupling its hours. YouTube Gaming saw a 25% growth. Twitch saw a little growth with 5%, but we need to consider its watch time is already way compared to all the other platforms.

It is clear that, even with its huge streamer deals, Mixer isn’t growing its audience and popularity with the path it is following currently. Mixer threw a lot of resources into getting top Twitch streamers, but star power isn’t the only thing a company needs to grow.

Could things change?

This doesn’t mean Mixer is doomed. Far from it. We’re expecting to see the release of a new Xbox this year and typically new consoles bring in increased video game sales and increased interest in streaming related to the new content. It is quite possible Microsoft could cash in on their own streaming platform through its new console.

Facebook Creator Studio gets mobile companion app

Facebook Creator Studio on mobile

Facebook has announced the release of a mobile version of Creator Studio. It’s been long requested from content creators and now they’re getting it.

Up until this point, creators could only use Creator Studio on desktops. Now they can access it on their mobile phones. Creators can now upload and track performance metrics. Right now, Creator Studio is currently available on both iOS and Android.

Coming to mobile

Facebook made the announcement in a blog post. The company claims the Creator Studio app is “an evolution of and mobile complement to” the desktop version. Inside of the app, it will give creators access to data and engagement metrics, which includes ‘one-minute views’ and ‘average minutes viewed’. Creators will also be able to edit video titles and descriptions right from the app. As well, they can delete existing posts and to publish drafted posts, read and respond to messages and comments, toggle between multiple Facebook Pages, and receive notifications for account milestones.

This is the second stab at a Creator Studio app

Facebook previously released an app geared towards creators, but it wasn’t successful. It was launched back in 2017. It was called Facebook Creator App, but it was discontinued. Facebook told Tubefilter the first app was less geared to vital features than the current app. It focused more on Live video previews and exclusive Stories stickers, which aren’t that important to creators. Facebook says the new app will focus on insight and Page toggling.

A companion tool to the desktop version

To be clear, the mobile version of the Creator App won’t have the same capabilities as the desktop version. The mobile version will be a companion tool to the desktop version according to Facebook. Still, it seems like it will make Facebook creator’s lives a lot easier being able to check analytics and track performance on the go.

Neebs Gaming was hacked by scammers

Neebs Gaming
Neebs Gaming

Another channel on YouTube has fallen victim to hackers. This time it’s Neebs Gaming and they were hijacked by cryptocurrency scammers over the weekend.

A few days ago, the Neebs Gaming YouTube channel announced to its two million subscribers that its YouTube account has been hacked. They warned their viewers to not click any of the links on their videos where the hijackers likely put fake links to hack accounts.

Is YouTube doing anything about this?

To get YouTube’s attention, Neebs Gaming tagged YouTube to try and get them to help them solve the problem. YouTube responded with a very unhelpful response: “Sorry to hear about this – can you still sign in to your YouTube channel?” YouTube then linked the creator to tips on how to add “extra layers of security.”

The creators were completely locked out of their account. The channel’s name has been changed to CoinBase Pro and none of the videos are viewable in the home and video tabs. Luckily, Neebs Gaming revealed they were able to get their channel back. Neebs Gaming thanked “@TeamYouTube for getting this taken care of and thank you guys for being there for us!”

Hackers posing as CoinBase Pro

The hackers in question are posing as the CoinBase Pro brand. They are posing as its CEO, Brian Armstrong. They changed the channel’s name and banner to try and mislead subscribers into participating in fake Bitcoin giveaways. In addition, they host a live stream titled “Coinbase CEO announced the greatest crypto Air-Drop 10,000 Bitcoin, Live.”

Neebs Gaming was changed to Coinbase Pro
Neebs Gaming was changed to Coinbase Pro

During the live stream, the hackers said they’d give Neebs Gaming viewers 10x returns if they send their bitcoin to their wallet address. They also used footage from an old video made by Armstrong of a live AMA back in April 2019. In total, around 95,000 people reportedly watched the stream, however it is possible more joined in. The hackers’ Bitcoin address had received just over 2.465 BTC in 20 separate transactions. That is about $24,000 in total stolen.

What does this teach us?

This is sadly not an uncommon thing to happen to both creators and users. Neebs Gaming’s incident isn’t unique on YouTube. There are tons of scammers and hackers looking to cause trouble and make a quick buck. You need to always make sure you know what links you are clicking and who you are talking with. Always make sure you know what address a link is sending you to. There are links sent by hackers and scammers that will instantly download software onto your computer that will allow them to take over. Be careful and always be cautious.

Image courtesy: Neebs Gaming

YouTube tests Viewer Applause monetization feature

YouTube monetization

YouTube is looking for alternative monetization avenues for creators on the platform. Its most recent idea takes from Twitch’s Clapping. YouTube is currently testing a Viewer Applause feature that would allow viewers to donate to creators.

It is reported that YouTube is currently testing this clapping feature in certain areas. It is officially being called “Viewer Applause.” The Viewer Applause feature will allow viewers to purchase a clapping animation that will appear over the video they’re supporting. However, the clapping animation will only show for the buyer.

As you might have guessed already, the feature is in beta right now. YouTube is testing it with creators as we speak. However, the creators have to be invited by YouTube to test.

When will this monetization feature see the light of day?

YouTube told The Verge that its beta test for this monetization feature is in a very early state. So, it isn’t certain whether Viewer Applause will ever be rolled out onto the platform. YouTube however does seem set on making it work. It would be another option for creators to make money on the platform with their videos and not just through their live streams.

How Viewer Applause will work

Thanks to a video from analytics firm VidIQ, we can see how the feature will work. According to the video, creators with access to the feature can go to their dashboards and enable the option. Once the option is enabled, their viewers will see an option to support the creator by clicking on an icon near the like and dislike button. Viewers can donate up to $500 dollars per day or $2,000 per week on Super Chats, Super Stickers and Viewer Applause combined.

While Clapping is a feature on Twitch, it doesn’t work as a donation. YouTube clearly is trying to take from Twitch’s streaming community. Twitch has been losing a lot of its top streamers to Mixer, YouTube and Facebook. This just shows that YouTube is working towards improving its monetization systems and may be trying to snatch more streamers from Twitch.

YouTube demands AI app to stop collecting facial data

AI app tracking face

Google and YouTube have just sent a cease-and-desist letter to Clearview AI, demanding the app to stop collecting facial data of people on their platforms.

For a little context, Clearview AI is a facial recognition app that is collecting images from websites and social media platforms according to CBS News. Clearview AI claims to identify a person by comparing their picture to its database that’s composed of three billion images taken from the internet. The system is said to be 99.6% accurate, according to CEO Hoan Ton-That. This app is only offered to those in law enforcement, allowing them to identify criminals, according to Ton-That. He affirms it isn’t a surveillance tool:

“You have to remember that this is only used for investigations after the fact. This is not a 24/7 surveillance system,” he said.

YouTube sends a cease-and-desist letter to Clearview AI

So, Google and YouTube have sent a cease-and-desist letter to Clearview AI. While Ton-That argued that Clearview AI has a First Amendment right to access public data, Google and YouTube say they are violating their policies.

“YouTube’s Terms of Service explicitly forbid collecting data that can be used to identify a person,” said a YouTube spokesperson to The Verge. “Clearview has publicly admitted to doing exactly that, and in response we sent them a cease and desist letter.”

This isn’t the first time Clearview AI has been told to stop collecting data. Twitter sent a very similar letter in January to the AI app. Twitter too is trying to stop the app from taking pictures from their platform. Facebook and Venmo have also chimed in saying that Clearview AI is violating their policies. However, they haven’t sent cease-and-desist letters yet.

Ton-That argued that Clearview AI is practically a search engine for faces for law enforcement: “Google can pull in information from all different websites,” he said. “So if it’s public and it’s out there and could be inside Google search engine, it can be inside ours as well.”

However, YouTube Spokesperson Alex Joseph disagreed: “Most websites want to be included in Google Search, and we give webmasters control over what information from their site is included in our search results, including the option to opt-out entirely. Clearview secretly collected image data of individuals without their consent, and in violation of rules explicitly forbidding them from doing so.”

Does this AI app cross the line?

One thing is clear here, Clearview AI doesn’t have permission to use the photos they are taking from the internet. It’s taking photos from online services without asking and violating many policies. However, how enforceable can YouTube’s terms of services be? Clearview isn’t just collecting photos, they are using photos and videos to train their AI to identify people. How far can they go until it becomes a legal issue? It may already be. Though, YouTube has developed similar AI research in the same way.

We will have to see if any of these tech companies can enforce their policies. What do you think? Is Clearview AI crossing a line it shouldn’t be or are they justified? Is YouTube violating their own policies? Are they in the right to collect similar data of videos on their own platform? Let us know below.

Scam results in YouTube creator losing his channel

Imagine working for years on YouTube to reach 50K + subs on your channel and then losing it all. That is the nightmare that happened to YouTuber Kennis Russell because of a scam that cost him his entire YouTube channel.

Kennis Russell, guitar enthusiasts on YouTube, had over 50K subscribers. He worked years to get to that point. Unfortunately, he was scammed and lost it all. How did he lose it? He received a scam sponsorship deal that resulted in the scammer hacking his account. Kennis essentially lost his ownership of his channel and there was nothing he could do about it. The channel was eventually deleted by YouTube because the scammer posted a ton of copyrighted material on the channel. Still, it earned the scammer a lot of money and resulted in Kennis losing his years of hard work and his community.

You can see Kennis talk about the entire experience in his video below:

These scams aren’t uncommon on YouTube

As YouTubers’ channels grow in popularity, more sponsors reach out. That’s just how it goes. Sadly, this also means there are more scammers reaching out to make a quick buck. Kennis received a fake email from a scammer pretending to be a company called Muzex Pro. After talking about a few specifics, Kennis went to download a free trial version of Muzex and unfortunately was hit hard with a virus on his computer. He deleted the file off his computer, but it was already too late.

The scam isn’t just a rare occurrence for those on YouTube or any other creator platform. After hearing Kennis’s story, YouTuber Austin, the man behind Trogly’s Guitar Show, weighed in on his experience with a similar situation. Luckily, he found out it was a scam before he was hacked. Austin was contacted by a fake company named GameBloom Official. They were a lot less convincing than Kennis’s scammers. When Austin seemed reluctant, they became much pushier and got so desperate they sent him direct links to the virus download while disguising it as a link to a page on their website. Austin avoided losing his channel just because he checked where the link would take him.

You need to be careful out there

As we said before, these scams aren’t uncommon for those on YouTube. As online content creators, you need to be careful and weary when you receive anything from a person or company claiming to be something you can’t solidly confirm is real. Austin pointed out a few tell signs of a scam in his video that we think are important.

First, a company will never outright tell you how much they will pay you for a job in the initial email. It’s always a deal that is worked out over at least a few messages. Second, do a Google search. If they don’t come up in any searches, that is really suspicious. If there is no online trail of the company trying to make a deal with you, then it’s likely a scam. In Austin and Kennis’s case, the companies said they were new and needed more promotion to show up on Google. They try to play it like they’re new brands. Don’t fall for it. Ask them a ton of questions. If the company you’re talking to pushes back and gets testy, then they are likely a scam. However, even if they aren’t pushy, like in Kennis’s case, be suspicious. And lastly, always check where a link is sending you and never download suspicious software they provide onto your computer.

The internet is full of scammers looking to take advantage of creators wanting to improve and grow their channels. Be careful out there. We don’t want anyone else losing their channel.

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