YouTube creators outraged as new profanity guidelines wreak havoc YouTube has made a drastic change to its advertiser-friendly content guidelines, specifically relating to the use of profanity, resulting in a wave of demonization for users on the platform. Over the years, YouTube has adjusted its content policies to suit the needs of advertisers. Where YouTube was once the wild west of video sharing, users now have to abide by a set of rules to make money from their content. Advertisers choose whether or not to use YouTube based on the type of content allowed on the platform and can refine the videos their ads appear in. As we\u2019ve seen in the infamous Adpocalypse of 2017, offensive content can lead to major brands pulling advertising from the platform as a whole. These companies included Coca-Cola, Dr. Pepper, Johnson & Johnson, Mars, Adidas, and HP. This led to YouTube cracking down on offensive content and enforcing new guidelines to ensure the platform\u2019s longevity. However, it has been several years since YouTube as a platform has been at risk of losing advertisers, yet a massive policy change has recently seen content creators lose monetization, leaving these users confused. YouTube profanity policy leaves platform confused Before this policy change, creators operated by the rule that there shouldn\u2019t be any harsh profanity \u2013 like \u201cf*ck\u201d \u2013 within the first 30 seconds of the video. However, this new policy states that creators can\u2019t use profanities for the video\u2019s first 8-15 seconds. But that\u2019s not the part of the policy change that\u2019s causing the most havoc. The Gaming and monetization section of YouTube\u2019s YouTube Partner Program guidelines states that videos can maintain monetization if \u201cprofanity does not occur throughout the majority of the video.\u201d But the Advertiser-friendly content guidelines state, \u201cOccasional use of profanity (such as in music videos) won\u2019t necessarily result in your video being unsuitable for advertising.\u201d These ambiguous guidelines have confused many content creators, as they don\u2019t offer a concrete reason for their videos\u2019 demonetization. YouTubers are wondering what qualifies as the \u201cmajority\u201d of their video and are left uneasy by the use of the word \u201cnecessarily,\u201d as it leaves the door open for YouTube to remove monetization at their discretion. And this widespread fear of demonization isn\u2019t misplaced. Several content creators have reported mass demonetization on their channels with no warning from YouTube. These include MoistCr1TiKaL, LS Mark, RTGame, Stan from Poland, and more. YouTube\u2019s new policy also applies to the entire content library of each creator. Some creators report that videos from 10+ years are being demonetized due to \u201cExtreme Profanity,\u201d and even private videos are being flagged by the system. As of writing, YouTube has yet to respond to the outrage from creators. It is possible that the platform is seeking advertisers that require a more family-friendly atmosphere and are enacting policies that would allow for that. With the increasing popularity of video sponsorships, creators have strayed away from midroll ads, resulting in less profit for the platform. But the policy change doesn\u2019t seem to be the problem for creators. Instead, they are more upset with the lack of communication from YouTube leading up to the change. Some YouTubers have stated had the platform informed creators beforehand and allowed them time to make the necessary changes to their content, the backlash could have been much less severe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
YouTube creators outraged as new profanity guidelines wreak havoc YouTube has made a drastic change to its advertiser-friendly content guidelines, specifically relating to the use of profanity, resulting in a wave of demonization for users on the platform. Over the years, YouTube has adjusted its content policies to suit the needs of advertisers. Where YouTube […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65665\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}