At the end of May, journalist Tom Henderson revealed that YouTube has conducted several investigations over the past 18 months due to leaks caused by its employees. Henderson has now shared details of these incidents and illustrated, using the recent State of Play, how pervasive the problem is within Google's service.

The first investigation took place at the end of 2022 and involved the blogger KSI. He regularly recorded videos where he tried not to laugh while watching clips sent by subscribers. If KSI laughed, he would display an Amazon gift card code on the screen worth $100. In the last video of the series, KSI offered a thousand dollars for laughing. The problem arose when it was discovered that the codes had been activated before the video was published.

KSI complained to YouTube, prompting Google to launch an investigation, which led to the dismissal of several employees. Henderson's source noted that YouTube staff regularly watch user videos—not just for approval or monetization purposes. This includes all private videos, including game trailers or full presentations.

The situation with State of Play demonstrated that the issue persists despite all the investigations. Henderson reported that less than a day after Sony uploaded the video to YouTube servers, four different people leaked the full list of titles included. Moreover, one source claimed this info was sold for a three-digit sum, and the buyer asked him to spread the leak online to give it more credibility.

Thus YouTube's current restrictions are ineffective, and companies cannot avoid uploading videos in advance—no one wants to publish a clip in 360p.

Main image: alphacoders.com

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