If you are a YouTube creator, you might have experienced the frustration of getting a strike on your channel for violating the platform’s policies. A strike can limit your access to features like monetization, live streaming, or uploading new videos. And if you get three strikes within 90 days, your channel can be terminated.
But YouTube has recently announced some changes to its creators’ policies that could give you more chances to clear your violations and avoid losing your channel. Here’s what you need to know about the new rules and why YouTube decided to implement them.
According to YouTube, the previous rules were based on a “one size fits all” approach that did not take into account the context and intent of each violation. For example, if you uploaded a video that contained hate speech, nudity, or graphic violence, you would get a strike regardless of whether you did it intentionally or accidentally, or whether you were trying to educate, entertain, or inform your audience.
The new changes are more flexible and nuanced, and they aim to provide more opportunities for creators to learn from their mistakes and correct their behavior. Here are the main changes:
- You will get a warning instead of a strike for your first violation of any policy, unless it is related to child safety, spam, scams, or egregious harm. A warning will not affect your channel’s features, but it will still remove the offending content.
- You will have a chance to appeal a strike before it is issued, if you think you did not violate any policy or if you had a valid reason for doing so. You will also be able to appeal a strike after it is issued, as before.
- You will have more time to resolve your strikes before they expire. Instead of 90 days, strikes will now expire after 120 days. However, if you get another strike within that period, the expiration date will reset to 120 days from the most recent strike.
- You will have more resources and guidance to understand YouTube’s policies and how to avoid violating them. YouTube will provide more clear and detailed explanations of why your content was removed or flagged, and what you can do to prevent it from happening again.
Reasons for new rule change
YouTube says that the new rules are based on feedback from creators and users, as well as data analysis and research. The platform claims that the new rules will help creators avoid unintentional violations, improve their understanding of YouTube’s policies, and reduce the risk of losing their channels. YouTube also hopes that the new rules will foster a safer and more respectful community for everyone.
YouTube’s new creators’ policies giving chances to clear their violations are part of the platform’s ongoing efforts to balance its responsibility to protect its users from harmful content with its commitment to support its creators’ freedom of expression and creativity. Whether these changes will achieve these goals remains to be seen, but they are certainly a welcome update for many creators who rely on YouTube as their main source of income or passion.
