YouTube Is Adding Watermarks To Downloaded Shorts To Be Credited

Source: YouTube

YouTube is adding watermarks to downloaded Shorts.

When creators download their Shorts from their YouTube Studio to share them across other social media platforms, they will have a YouTube watermark on them. It says the watermark is being added so that viewers can know that the content creators share on other platforms can be found on YouTube Shorts.

The platform taking this route makes a lot of sense as the watermark will help give YouTube credit as the source. TikTok has significantly benefited from this as it's quite easy to identify a video that been repurposed from TikTok. Instagram and Pinterest also have watermarks for downloaded Reels and Idea Pins content.

However, this isn't ideal for creators. It will require them to create their content in three-party apps that don't add a watermark to make their content native to each social media platform. There will be creators that won't necessarily care about repurposing content with a watermark, as TikTok proved. But, this could hinder performance as platforms like Instagram have made it known that content with watermarks will be negatively impacted by the algorithm.

The social media platforms say they want to help creators, and many of them do, but simple things like watermarking their content make it more difficult for them — requiring more effort and lift for them to be creators.