I think the solution for the google / youtube issue would be to have 2-4 tiers of content. And let brands decided what tiers their Ads are displayed against. T

I think the solution for the google / youtube issue would be to have 2-4 tiers of content. And let brands decided what tiers their Ads are displayed against. Tier 1 Vetted - Google marks a video for vetting when it has enough views. A Human checks the video and approves it. This lets google charge more for the "trusted ads", especially as selection bias means they will all be well above average in popularity. Tier 2 Partner Network - Google delegates to the channel / network / partner to verify the content. This allows major partners to post content without needing it to be google vetted. Google ties this into the royalties payment so violation of this can result in financial penalty / being kicked off. If a video is reported it is immediately marked for vetting. Tier 3 - Unverified. This is where majority of new content goes. There are plenty of brands that are less concerned about being associated with the random mix. As the general quality will be down the ad price will likely be lower, but these are the Tier 4 - Unsuitable for major brands. This is for any content that has been vetted and is ok as far as Youtube's TOC, but inappropriate for major brand advertising. This will likely not generate a large amount of ad revenue, however being marked as a tier 4 video means you will not earn much, so it won't be produced by ad supported content producers. If this content is appropriately tagged you might be able to sell the ads to the opposing view. This pro-life vs pro-choice. The main reason this tier exists is to protect the dollars from Tier 1 & 2. The vetting system could even have certain tags to mark content of certain types. I.e. you could allow a brand to not advertise against political material, however you would charge more for the placement of more targeted ads. The system will push the vetting onto content producers while maintaining a pretty big (financial) stick to keep them in line.