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Google’s new inactive account policy is already causing a stir. The company announced on Tuesday that accounts that have not been used for two years will be deleted many people wondering what exactly that means for YouTube content. There are probably millions of videos from dead and inactive YouTube creators – would Google’s new data policy mean nearly two decades of online history would be wiped out?
Yesterday’s Google blog post certainly gave that impression: “If a Google account hasn’t been used or signed in for at least two years, we may delete the account and its content – including content in Google Workspace (Gmail, Docs, Drive, Meet, Calendar), YouTube, and Google Photos.” This policy would mean things like the first YouTube video, official YouTube accounts of former US Presidents, and tons of content from retired YouTubers and music artists would be deleted. That would be horrible.
A day later, Google announced that there would be no digital burning of Alexandria. Rene Ritchie, the YouTube creators’ liaison, clarified on twitter that Google “has no plans to delete accounts with YT videos.” 9to5Google heard the same statement from a Google spokesman. This is great news, but it’s also very vague and at odds with what’s in all of Google’s current documentation, including the blog post. Can people keep a Google account alive forever with a single video? We’ve had an email to Google since Tuesday night asking for a formal policy on YouTube videos, but we haven’t heard back. It seems like the company is still figuring this out.
By the way, there is no point in deleting old YouTube content. While dormant data is nothing more than a money pit for things like Gmail and Google Photos, YouTube content is open to the public and Google serves ads for these videos, so these videos make money. If there’s no YouTuber to share earnings with, that’s even better! Discarding old videos would not only harm YouTube as a platform, but also hurt Google’s bottom line.
We’ll update this story when Google releases a formal YouTube policy. However, the inactive account policy won’t go into effect until December 2023, giving Google some time to figure that out.