YouTube to Delete Accounts that are not 'Commercially Viable'

YouTube has updated its terms and conditions to include a statement that it reserves the right to delete, at its "sole discretion", any Google account that it considers is not "commercially viable". Creators are reasonably worried as the phrasing is vague a heavy-handed explanation of the terms could directly impact their source of revenue.

Notably, under the 'Account Suspension and Termination' section, Google states:

YouTube may terminate your use of the Services, or your Google account's access to all or part of the Service if YouTube believes, in its sole discretion, that provision of the Service to you is no longer commercially viable.

Moreover, YouTube may or may not alert the user as to the reason for the termination.

Now while this could be understood as Google giving itself a legal backdoor in case something unpleasant happens on the platform, Google's past actions, particularly with regards to demonetisation on the platform, have left creators with little to no faith that YouTube will 'do the right thing.'

Some are also using the opportunity to blame YouTube of playing favourites with creators with a lot of followers. Such creators do get special privileges from YouTube, and the company has, historically, been lenient with the more popular YouTubers.

The new terms will be applicable from 10 December onwards.