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Over the last 10 years, everyone from moms to presidents have uploaded videos in support of LGBT awareness, to stand up against bullying and discrimination, and to say together, as a community, that marriage equality matters.

That’s why we are so excited by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling today guaranteeing same-sex couples nationwide the right to marry. In recognition of Pride Month, and of this historic decision, we want to celebrate the many individuals and communities that have helped inspire change:


YouTube has given creators like Tyler Oakley and Jazz Jennings, to entertainers like Ellen DeGeneres and Todrick Hall, a platform to entertain and inspire, while raising LGBT awareness in society as a whole. Thanks to creators and fans alike, YouTube has become a home to coming out videos and transitioning videos, a place where people can share advice, find a community, or encourage activism. Together, these videos help us see our common humanity in the faces and voices of those we might otherwise perceive as different.

So today, we say “thank you” to all of those who were brave enough to show us that it really can, and does, get better—and how much better it still can get.

The YouTube Team

In the last ten years, we’ve witnessed many of the biggest and most important news stories unfold on YouTube. From the Green Revolution, Arab Spring and protests in Ferguson, to the Charlie Hebdo attacks and earthquake in Nepal, user-generated video has provided a unique and visceral perspective on what’s happening in the world around us. It’s almost impossible to turn on the news during a breaking event without seeing raw video uploaded by a YouTube user somewhere across the globe. 

Today, more than 5 million hours of news video is watched on YouTube every day, and the role of the eyewitness has never had a more vital place in the newsgathering process. We live in a world where anyone can bear witness to what is happening around them and share it with a global audience, and YouTube has become a primary home for this powerful, first-person documentary footage.

That is why we’re excited to announce three new initiatives to support the discovery and verification of eyewitness news video on YouTube:

• The YouTube Newswire: In partnership with Storyful, a social news agency we’ve worked with since protests broke out in Tahrir Square in 2011, we’re rolling out the YouTube Newswire, a curated feed of the most newsworthy eyewitness videos of the day, which have been verified by Storyful’s team of editors and are embeddable from the original sources. With the Newswire, we hope to provide journalists with an invaluable resource to discover news video around major events, and to highlight eyewitness video that offers new perspectives on important news stories. The Newswire will feature global and regional feeds that surface the most relevant videos in different parts of the world. Follow us on Twitter or subscribe to the daily newsletter to get the latest videos delivered directly to your inbox.

• The First Draft Coalition: You could say that user-generated news video is today’s “first draft” of capturing an event that took place. But when it comes to incorporating this content into the reporting of a news event, verification is a critical step for any newsroom -- and not every journalist knows where to start. So we’re bringing together a group of thought leaders and pioneers in social media journalism to create educational resources on how to verify eyewitness media, and how to consider the ethics of using it in news reporting. This new group, called The First Draft Coalition, will consist of experts from Eyewitness Media Hub, Storyful, Bellingcat, First Look Media's Reported.ly, Meedan, Emergent, SAM Desk, and Verification Junkie. The Coalition will develop and program a new site for verification and ethics training, tools, research, and, most importantly, case studies around the biggest news stories of the moment. The site will launch this fall, but in the meantime, check out the Coalition’s Medium collection, chock full of how-to posts and examples of UGC verification, which we’ll update every week. You can also follow First Draft on Twitter.

• The WITNESS Media Lab: Over the past decade, YouTube has provided a platform for people to share eyewitness video of human rights atrocities around the world. In partnership with WITNESS, we are supporting the WITNESS Media Lab, a new approach to tackling pressing human rights issues through the analysis of citizen video. The WITNESS Media Lab - in collaboration with innovators in the technology, advocacy and journalism fields - will produce a series of in-depth projects that focus on human rights struggles as seen from the perspective of those who live, witness, and experience them. The first project from the WITNESS Media Lab will explore the impact of bystander video in bringing about justice in police brutality cases in the United States. Check out the new site and follow the WITNESS Media Lab on Twitter for more updates.

We’re proud of the role that YouTube and its creators have and continue to play in the ever-changing, ever-expanding news and information ecosystem, and we hope that these new projects will empower more journalists to use powerful eyewitness video easily and responsibly.

Posted by Olivia Ma, Head of Strategy and Operations, News Lab at Google

As a kid, I spent hours on the living room couch playing video games with friends, taking turns trying to beat Ganon in "Ocarina of Time" and trading Pokémon until I had all 151. Soon controller passing and Game Boy link cables gave way to network multiplayer and PC LAN parties. Eventually, my living room became a virtual one, with a network of gamers sharing experiences and discoveries. 

Today, the gaming world is much more diverse than the one I grew up with, and the community has created new formats that have made gaming more collaborative and interactive. On YouTube, gaming has spawned entirely new genres of videos, from let’s plays, walkthroughs, and speedruns to cooking and music videos. Now, it’s our turn to return the favor with something built just for gamers.

This summer, we'll launch YouTube Gaming, a brand new app and website to keep you connected to the games, players, and culture that matter to you, with videos, live streams, and the biggest community of gamers on the web—all in one place.



YouTube Gaming is built to be all about your favorite games and gamers, with more videos than anywhere else. From "Asteroids" to "Zelda," more than 25,000 games will each have their own page, a single place for all the best videos and live streams about that title. You’ll also find channels from a wide array of game publishers and YouTube creators.

Keeping up with these games and channels is now super easy, too. Add a game to your collection for quick access whenever you want to check up on the latest videos. Subscribe to a channel, and you'll get a notification as soon as they start a live stream. Uncover new favorites with recommendations based on the games and channels you love. And when you want something specific, you can search with confidence, knowing that typing “call” will show you “Call of Duty” and not “Call Me Maybe.” 



Live streams bring the gaming community closer together, so we’ve put them front-and-center on the YouTube Gaming homepage. And in the coming weeks, we’ll launch an improved live experience that makes it simpler to broadcast your gameplay to YouTube. On top of existing features like high frame rate streaming at 60fps, DVR, and automatically converting your stream into a YouTube video, we’re redesigning our system so that you no longer need to schedule a live event ahead of time. We’re also creating single link you can share for all your streams.

YouTube Gaming will be available this summer, starting in the U.S. and U.K. We’re building this just for gamers—so we want to hear from you about how we can make it the best way to connect with your community. If you’re at E3 next week, come by our booth for an early look at everything we’ve been working on. If not, tune in live from home at youtube.com/e3, head over to gaming.youtube.com and follow us @YouTubeGaming and you’ll be the first to know when YouTube Gaming is ready for you to play with.

Alan Joyce, Product Manager, recently played "Final Fantasy XIV"

We’re now only two weeks away from the start of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles, and you can get a front-row seat to the action with YouTube! We're inviting your favorite YouTube creators to show us what's cool and coming up next in the world of gaming, so you can experience every jaw-dropping demo and announcement LIVE.

We are building out a dedicated E3 YouTube hub where you will be able to follow all the live streams and trailers from the event, starting on Sunday, June 14, with the Nintendo World Championships, followed by the Bethesda press conference and the unveiling of the latest installment in the "Doom" series.

On Monday, June 15, at 9 a.m. PT, the wall-to-wall coverage will continue with a 12-hour live stream marathon, hosted by Geoff Keighley, brought to you by the movie “Self/less” - in theaters July 10. Geoff and YouTube gaming creators will bring you live coverage of press conferences from publishers like Xbox, Sony, EA and Ubisoft.


The program will include live “Let’s plays” of new titles, plus celebrity interviews along with other video game stars from the YouTube family. You'll also get live coverage from IGN and GameSpot, just like last year.

The play-by-play coverage will continue with hundreds of hours of live and on-demand content throughout the week directly from YouTube’s booth at E3, hosted by RoosterTeeth, along with our legendary Trailer Battle, Nintendo’s Digital Event and Treehouse Live, as well as other exclusive gaming content.

From live reactions and gaming demos, to trivia showdowns and “Meet the Makers” sessions with industry experts, the E3 YouTube hub will offer you the easiest place to explore the best of E3. Stay tuned starting on June 14.

Ryan Wyatt, global head of gaming content, recently watched "E3 Live on YouTube 2015 announcement video."