YouTube does not want its users to share their shorts on other rival social media platforms without taking credit for it and the latest update shows us that YouTube is very serious about it. YouTube has added watermarks to its short videos in order to discourage cross=platform sharing on Instagram or TikTok.
Unlike Instagram or TokTok, YouTube has not been adding watermarks to its videos but that has changes today as YouTube has announced through support thread that it will add watermarks to its Shorts once they are downloaded for sharing on other social media platforms. This change has already been live on its desktop version. IN a few months it will also be available on the mobile phones.
Social media creators prefer to share their content across all platforms to maximize the engagement. So instead of starting from scratch every time it makes more sense to share the same video on other platforms. However, YouTube’s new update aims at bringing people back to the original source of their favorite content. TikTok has done it already with its own watermarks and these watermarks show the creator’s username so you can find the original version on TikTok easily. YouTube’s watermarks may work in the same way.