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Creator Weekly: Meta Community Notes, Facebook Stories, YouTube Monetization

Creator Weekly: Meta Community Notes, Facebook Stories, YouTube Monetization

Peggy K
March 15, 2025

Spring is in the air! I’ve been thinking about this year’s garden, contemplating a spring cleaning project (although I usually don’t get far beyond the thinking part) and hoping for a week of sunshine so my favorite hike is less muddy.

This week I live streamed about my 15 years (!) as a Google Product Expert and I shared some cool swag I received from YouTube. Thanks for stopping by and saying hello!

This week’s big update is Meta testing Community Notes (which I’m skeptical of), with additional updates from YouTube, Facebook, Bluesky, Reddit and more. Plus more Gemini features and tools across Google.

Top news and updates this week

Meta is testing Community Notes in the US for Facebook, Instagram and Threads, to replace 3rd party fact checkers.
YouTube Creator Collective events are happening in all US states. Sign up today!
YouTube shared additional information about the mid-roll ad changes that will go into effect in May.
YouTube is testing a new system for Partners where videos rated “limited or no ads” are automatically given an additional review.
Google Workspace for Education admins need to re-confirm parental consent for under-18s to allow them access to YouTube, Google Photos and other services.
The Pocket Cast podcast web player is now free for everyone.
Apple Podcasts transcribed 100 million podcast episodes.
Chrome Web Store policy now appears to prohibit shopping apps like Honey that insert their own affiliate links.
The Google Search March 2025 core update is rolling out and Google is continuing to “work to surface more content from creators”.
Beehiiv now supports direct sponsorships for monetizing newsletters.
Creators can now earn money from Facebook Stories.
Bluesky now supports 3 minute videos and lets you screen DMs from unknown users.
Reddit now lets you hide individual ads, and will hide future ads from that advertiser.
There are new Gemini in Google Workspace features for Google Drive, Gmail, Meet, Google Chat, and Google Drawings.
Google is giving everyone access to Gemini Gems (“your own personal AI expert”) and Deep Research.
Google Assistant will be replaced by Gemini this year.
Plus reading on AI, Wikipedia, AO3, and Pokemon Go.

Ten Years Ago This Week

To celebrate 10 years of Creator Weekly, I’m sharing highlights from 2015.

Ten years ago Google tried to ban porn on Blogger. That lasted just a few days before Google backed down and reverted to their previous policy.

What happened this week? Join Creator Weekly on Sunday to hear about it first. Hint: it’s immersive.

Creator Weekly Live 🔴
What do you think about this week’s updates? Join the live Creator Weekly on Sunday, 10:30AM Pacific time (6:30PM UTC).

Take this week’s quiz ✅
What do you know?

New Tips

Last week's OnEBoard Chat Live featured my fellow Google Product Expert Michael Daniels sharing his experiences as a long time live streamer. It was an interesting conversation! Check it out.

To Do & Try

If you are in the U.S. check out YouTube’s list of upcoming Creator Collective events. There is an event in each of the 50 states this spring, focused on Shorts creation. RSVP soon, because space is limited. You can also opt in to be notified of future events happening near you. I went to one last month and it was fun.

Meta Testing Community Notes

Meta is going to start testing the new Community Notes in the US on March 18th for Facebook, Instagram and Threads.

They say they have 200,000 potential contributors who will be gradually admitted off the waitlist. Initially no Notes will appear publicly as they test the system.

The Notes will have a limit of 500 characters and are required to include a supporting link.

Meta claims Community Notes should be “less biased” than the previous 3rd party fact-checked notes, but the way the system actually works is that the notes don’t appear “unless contributors with a range of viewpoints broadly agree on them.” That means that the system is inherently biased against showing factual notes that some people disagree with for political reasons.

Notably, Meta says that they are taking the same approach as X, which has been shown in multiple studies to fail to address misinformation. Most notes don’t ever appear publicly.

And Meta says they won’t limit distribution of posts with false information.

I’m guessing politicians and purveyors of misinformation will be pleased that the new system is less likely to affect their posts (which certainly seems to be a major reason behind Meta’s policy change).

Eventually they plan to expand the system worldwide.

You can sign up for the waitlist here.

Related: Casey Newton at Platform explains how Meta’s take on Community Notes misses the mark.

Video Creator and Live Streaming Updates

YouTube posted a clarification about the new mid-roll ads update that will happen in May. In preparation for the update, YouTube started showing which manually-added ad slots are considered “interruptive” and will no longer show ads. YouTube noted they are improving the automatic mid-roll placement system to find more ad slots in natural breakpoints, and “tuning their ad serving system to shift more mid-roll ads into natural breakpoints.”

An update for YouTube Partners: YouTube is testing a new system where videos that are rated “limited or no ads” get an additional review. In some cases monetization decisions may take up to 24 hours. This is only available to a “small percentage of creators.” Learn more about why a video could be rated “limited or no ads”.

YouTube recapped their 20th anniversary panel at SXSW this week, including podcasting, the “Hot Ones” interview format, authenticity, creator collaboration and competition, and why YouTube videos and creators should be considered for awards like the Emmys.

Administrators for Google Workspace for Education need to re-confirm parental consent to allow under-18 users to access “Additional Services” like YouTube and Google Photos. The deadline is now. Affected users will see the message “Your Google Workspace for Education account is designated as under 18 and your organization’s admin has not granted you access to this Additional Service. To regain access, inform your admin that you need this service to be enabled.”

Google Ads highlighted how YouTube BrandConnect features can connect advertisers with creators. If you are a creator in the YouTube Partner Program, learn how to set up BrandConnect and link your videos to a brand’s Google Ads account.

On Twitch Zach Bussey reports that indefinitely suspended users whose account is restored on appeal will be on probation for 6 months. If there are new violations, the suspensions may be longer than usual.

TikTok celebrated Pi Day and its 2-year-old STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) feed.

Podcasting and Audio

The Pocket Cast podcast web player is now free for anyone to use, no account or subscription needed. This not only makes it easier to listen, but it’s also easier to share links to episodes or embed a show on your own website. Pocket Cast says “podcasts belong to the people, not corporations” and “discovery should be organic, not algorithm-driven.”

Apple Podcasts has transcribed 100 million episodes in 13 languages. Podcasts with a transcript can be shared from a specific timestamp. Creators can submit their own transcripts instead if they choose.

Web Publishers and Search

The Chrome Web Store has updated its policy banning extensions that insert affiliate links without user action. Back in January, there was a big exposé about Honey, a shopping extension promoted by a bunch of prominent creators that turned out to be replacing creator affiliate codes with their own. Under the new policy it seems Honey likely will no longer be allowed to be used with Chrome.

Google Search released the March 2025 core update. It may take up to 2 weeks to be fully rolled out. Google says: “This is a regular update designed to better surface relevant, satisfying content for searchers from all types of sites. We also continue our work to surface more content from creators through a series of improvements throughout this year. Some have already happened; additional ones will come later.”

Google Search has a refresher on robots.txt files: Page-level granularity.

Beehiiv now supports direct sponsorships, giving newsletters more options for direct ad placements. Beehiiv charges $10 per placement, which is much lower than platforms that take a percentage of ad revenue. It does require a paid Beehiiv account.

Creators can now earn money from Stories on Facebook. If you are monetizing already, you don’t need to do anything. Otherwise, apply for the Facebook Content Monetization Beta.

There’s a new version of Bluesky. New features include: videos up to 3 minutes long, a Chat Requests screen to approve or reject DMs from unknown users, easier to mute accounts and improved moderation reporting flow and more.

Bluesky CEO Jay Graber trolled Mark Zuckerberg at SXSW. Watch her talk about the future of social media, Bluesky’s open protocol and their “stackable” approach to moderation.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri says they do not penalize video content created in other apps as long as they don’t have a watermark.

Are there certain ads on Reddit you find annoying? You can now choose to “Hide” an ad, and when you do that they will hide future ads from that advertiser for at least a year.

X had an outage. Futurism reports The Real Reason Twitter Went Down Actually Sounds Pretty Embarrassing (poor setup, and it’s not due to who Musk blamed.

If you run ads on Meta (Facebook, Instagram), you may be able to integrate Google Analytics for improved traffic insights.

Communication and Collaboration

Features are available to free accounts unless otherwise noted.

You can use Gemini in Gmail to add events to Google Calendar. This is available in English on the web to Google Workspace customers with Gemini or a personal account with Google One AI Premium. Learn more.

You can use Gemini in Google Drive to create new Docs, Sheets, Slides file (“create a new Google Doc, Sheet or slide”) and folders (“create a new folder”). Available to Google Workspace customers with Gemini or a personal account with Google One AI Premium. Learn more.

New Gemini features coming to Google Workspace Business and Enterprise accounts: AI-generated backgrounds in Meet, plus Studio Look, Studio Lighting and Studio Sound; Google Chat automatic translations; and image background removal in Google Drawings (in addition to Slides and Vids). Learn more.

Google Meet Transcripts are available in 7 new languages: French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish. Gemini-powered “Take notes for me” is also available in those languages. Transcripts are available to Google Workspace Business Standard & Plus, Enterprise, Education Plus and Workspace Individual Subscribers. “Take notes for me” also requires access to Gemini in Workspace

Google Meet captions for meeting recordings are also available in Italian, Korean and Japanese. Meeting recording captions are available to Workspace accounts, Google Workspace Individual Subscriptions and Google One Premium subscribers.

More AI Updates and Tips

Jordan Harrod: Don't Use Deep Research (Until You Watch This) | Gemini, OpenAI, and Perplexity Deep Research (YouTube video). Even if these tools analyze perfectly, they can only use information they can access on the web, which is quite limiting.

Columbia Journalism Review: AI Search has a citation problem. Chatbots (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Grok, Copilot, Gemini) provide incorrect answers to most queries to identify source articles, and they present inaccurate answers with “alarming confidence.”

Google is killing Google Assistant on mobile devices this year in favor of Gemini. There will also be a Gemini-powered experience on smart speakers, displays and TVs. They have finally configured Gemini for tasks like setting an alarm or timer, so maybe it won’t be terrible (although reading the help center it appears you still need to unlock your device to get some personalized responses, which makes it useless with voice commands).

The Gemini app now lets you enable Personalization (experimental), which will check your Search history to try to “enhance” its response.

Google is expanding access to Deep Research and Gems (“your own personal AI expert”) in Gemini to personal accounts, and more Google Workspace editions. It’s available to pretty much everyone now.

OpenAI warns US to let it train on copyrighted material or China wins AI race (gross)

Marey is a new AI video generator aimed at professional filmmakers that is only trained on licensed data.