More than 2 million YouTube videos were hit with incorrect copyright claims

YouTube put out a report which reveals that over 2.2 million videos were hit with incorrect copyright claims between January and June of this year. However, the amount was just a tiny percentage of over 722 million claims made through Content ID—0.5%, to be exact.

The report, called the Copyright Transparency Report, is the first of its kind published by YouTube and shows data from the first half of 2021. The platform also says that it will release an update biannually going forward.

According to YouTube, the vast majority of claims and removal requests originated from its automatic detection technology, through Copyright Match and Content ID tools. You might be familiar with it if you’re a content creator on the platform, but YouTube uses its detection tools to scan against a database of files that have been submitted to them by content owners. When a match is found, the video gets a Content ID claim.

In the first half of 2021, 0.5% of all Content ID claims (3.6 million) were disputed. This is a small amount, compared to the 99.5% of undisputed Content ID claims (718.9 million).

And amongst the disputed cases, data from the report shows that the majority of them—over 60%—of resolutions are resolved in favor of the uploader. This amounts to 2.2 million, whereas 40% of the claims (1.4 million) were in favour of the claimant.

The report might be a step in the right direction for YouTube, as the platform says that they want to make sure they enable rightsholders to manage their content. However, it also shows how currently common disputed claims are. Content creators have reported how YouTube handles claims, saying that unjustified enforcement “can lead to lost income”.

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