YouTube in a long anticipated move will now allow some video creators to charge viewers a monthly fee to access certain content. The move adds a new potential revenue stream for YouTube and its thousands of content partners.

“Today, there are more than 1 million channels generating revenue on YouTube, and one of the most frequent requests we hear from these creators behind them is for more flexibility in monetizing and distributing content. We’ve been working on that and wanted to fill you in on what to expect,” YouTube said in a statement.

The statement added that this was part of an effort begun in 2007. YouTube released a list of about 50 channels which will be part of the program.

“Every channel has a 14-day free trial, and many offer discounted yearly rates,” it said.

“This is just the beginning. We’ll be rolling paid channels out more broadly in the coming weeks as a self-service feature for qualifying partners.

Google bought YouTube in 2006. Until now the content has been free, while the service is believed to generate a small amount of revenue from advertising. It’s unclear whether YouTube viewers who have gotten used to accessing only free content will choose to pay for special channels.

Earlier this year Google said more than a billion people use YouTube each month.

“If YouTube were a country, we’d be the third-largest in the world after China and India,” the team said in March.

The change, introduced on 1 May, means google.ps now displays ‘Palestine’ in Arabic and English under Google’s logo.

The move on Wednesday follows the UN  decision in November to recognise Palestine as a “non-observer state” in spite of objections by the US and Israel.

The resolution on the status of Palestine in the UN was adopted by a vote of 138 in favour to nine against with 41 abstentions by the 193-member Assembly.

Google spokesman Nathan Tyler told the BBC: “We’re changing the name ‘Palestinian Territories’ to ‘Palestine’ across our products. We consult a number of sources and authorities when naming countries.

“In this case, we are following the lead of the UN, Icann [the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers], ISO [International Organisation for Standardisation] and other international organisations

Sabri Saadat, a spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, welcomed the move and called it a step in the right direction

Israel however questioned the move, saying that it raised questions about the company’s involvement in international politics.

“This change raises questions about the reasons behind this surprising involvement of what is basically a private internet company in international politics, and on the controversial side,” Yigal Palmor, Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, told AFP news agency.

The Israelis and Palestinians have yet to resume direct negotiations since talks stalled in September 2010, after Israel refused to extend its freeze on settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Some have interpreted the change as a small victory for Palestine.

Google revealed an alarming situation, in its Transparency report. According to the report, it received more than 1,000 requests from governments to take down content from its search results and YouTube during the last six months of 2011.

These requests were intended at having some 12,000 items overall removed, about a quarter more than during the first half of last year.

“It’s alarming not only because free expression is at risk, but because some of these requests come from countries you might not suspect – Western democracies not typically associated with censorship,” Dorothy Chou, senior policy analyst said.

Google received 461 court orders for the removal of 6,989 items, and it went on to remove 68% of those items. The company also received 546 informal requests and went on to pull content related to 46% of those requests.

According to the Guardian, Google also receives a lot of requests to remove content based on copyright infringement, which it complies with about 97% of the time.

According to the report The United States government leads the world in content removal requests to Google, as measured by specific items, according to the company’s latest transparency data report for the second half of 2011.

The data, which was released Monday, shows that American authorities have requested more than twice as many as the next country, Germany. Google says it complied with 40 percent of the American requests. The number of content removal requests received by the US has increased by 103% compared to the previous reporting period.

Google says it has got no choice but to submit to these requests because certain types of political speech are against law and deemed derogatory.

According the European Union’s Executive Commission announcements in January, clear guidelines will given on handling such requests, outlining under which circumstances it would be legal to have content removed from the Web and when it would curb free speech and fundamental rights, Arabian Gazette reported.