YouTube CEO Apologises for Overhauling Verification Policy

Barely a day after YouTube rolled out changes to its verification programme amid a controversy over the content it pushes to its users, the company's CEO Susan Wojcicki promised to re-evaluate the company's recently revamped policy.

Apologising to video creators, Wojcicki posted on Twitter on late on Friday: "To our creators and users - I'm sorry for the frustration and hurt that we caused with our new approach to verification. While trying to make improvements, we missed the mark. As I write this, we're working to address your concerns and we'll have more updates soon."

She proceeded to detail the updates, "We heard loud & clear how much the badge means to you. Channels that currently have verification will now keep it without appeal. We'll continue reviewing those channels to ensure we're protecting creators from impersonation," pointing to an updated YouTube Creator Blog post.

Wojcicki added, "Like in the past, channels that reach 100k subs will be eligible to apply for verification. To better clarify how channels will qualify, we've updated the eligibility criteria here: https://yt.be/help/3Htg. The new look for the badge will not roll out until next year."

The video-sharing platform had said that it's overhauling its system that gave way to outrage among some of YouTube's millions of creators, who said their verified statuses were revoked because of the new requirements.

On Thursday, the company said it would move away from using subscription numbers to determine verification. Instead, it'll prioritise verifying "prominent channels that have a clear need for proof of authenticity", its YouTube Creator Blog post said.