YouTube has announced that it will be updating its enforcement policies to give creators who violate its rules a chance to start fresh. Under the new policy, creators who receive a warning for violating YouTube’s community guidelines will have the opportunity to take a training course aimed at helping them better understand how to avoid uploading videos that go against the platform’s regulations. If they complete the course and do not violate the same policy within a 90-day period, YouTube will remove the warning from their account, essentially allowing them to avoid a suspension.
However, if a creator violates the same policy for which they received a warning a second time within the 90-day window, YouTube will remove the offending video and issue a strike to the creator. Accumulating strikes can jeopardize a creator’s ability to make a living from the platform. A creator who completes a training course and has their warning lifted after the 90-day period, but then violates the same policy again, will start from scratch with another warning from YouTube. They will have the option to go through another training program to have the new warning removed from their account.
One significant change with this update is that YouTube will no longer apply a blanket lifetime warning to creators who violate its rules. Instead, warnings will be specific to the policy that was violated. This means that creators can accumulate multiple warnings on their account and have the option to take a training course for each one to have them wiped away.
YouTube implemented one-time warnings for a first rule break in 2019, which allowed creators to review their mistakes before facing more serious penalties, such as strikes. According to YouTube, over 80 percent of creators who received a warning haven’t violated any rules since. However, creators expressed a desire for more resources to better understand how YouTube draws its policy lines. The platform’s new approach aims to provide greater transparency and address this feedback from creators.
It is important to note that the three-strike policy is still in effect. If a creator receives three strikes within 90 days, YouTube is likely to remove them from the platform. Extreme policy violations can still result in strikes and channel termination, even if a creator has gone through the training courses. The community guidelines themselves have not undergone any changes in this update.
YouTube states that it will continue to work towards making its policies easier for creators to understand. The platform’s ultimate goal is to provide clarity to creators, enabling them to avoid strikes on the platform while maintaining a healthy experience for the entire YouTube community.
Offering YouTubers the opportunity to learn and grow from their mistakes is seen as a positive step, despite the potential for some bad actors to try and manipulate the system by deliberately crossing the line with a few videos each year. In a similar vein, Xbox recently introduced an eight-strike enforcement policy, allowing users to have strikes removed from their accounts after six months.
In conclusion, YouTube’s updated enforcement policies aim to provide creators with the chance to rectify their mistakes and better understand the platform’s guidelines. By offering training courses and allowing warnings to be lifted after a period of compliance, YouTube strives to strike a balance between educating creators and maintaining a safe and healthy environment for its community.