After following the same protocol for nearly a decade, YouTube is finally altering the way it doles out Community Guidelines strike or punishments for creators that violate its policies by posting videos that include sexual content, violence, hate, speech, spam, etc.
YouTube announced the new system through its blog post and declared it to be simpler, more consistent, and transparent. The company also claims that up until now, most creators have had a good understanding of their policies. In fact, 98% of creators have never received a strike, and the 94% of channels who received their first never received a second.
The new ‘three-strike’ system will evolve from February 25. As of that date, any channel found to be violating the Community Guidelines of YouTube will be given a one-time warning to remove any offending content from their channel. The company also clarifies that the channel will not suffer any additional penalties if they take prompt measures to abide by their guidelines.
YouTube also decided to allow the creators to appeal the one-time warnings, just like they could appeal to the strikes. In the case, the creator wins the appeal, the previous warnings are waived off and the channel would receive a warning before being hit with strikes.
Related: Is YouTube the culprit behind the spread of false news such as Flat-Earth?Moreover, a few changes are also being made to the three-strike system. Previously, the penalty for the first strike resulted in 90-day live streaming freeze while the punishment for the second strike was a two-week video upload freeze. From February 25 onward, all strikes will result in the same punishment – temporary ban from all YouTube activity.
The platform recently introduced several new features including the Stories, the Community tab, and Autoplay On Home Feed. The company has established that violating any of the features will also incur the same punishment.
For example, if the channel receives the first strike, they will receive a ban on all channel activity including uploads and live streaming for one-week. The second strike will constitute for a two-week freeze while the third strike will result in the channel’s termination.
The strikes expire within 90 days so in order to be completely blacklisted from YouTube’s platform; infractions would have to take place within a three-month period.
Besides the new system, YouTube is making progress to make communication better with the creators. Now, when the strike occurs, the company will send out email along with desktop and mobile notifications providing details about the violated policy, the consequences, and the available options for the creators.
More details about the new rules along with examples of the content prohibited on YouTube’s platform will be soon available on the company’s Policy Center.
The new policy will roll out globally but in no way will affect the already implemented Copyright Strikes.
Speculators claim that the recent changes in its policies are in wake of YouTube’s recent controversies with the channel of convicted sex offender Austin Jones and a few YouTube originals like Wayne violating their own policies. However, the video-streaming platform denies these accusations and admits to being working on these policies for nine months.
"These updates are part of our ongoing work to make sure that YouTube is the best place to listen, share, and create community through your stories. Our strikes system is an important way for us to help creators and artists understand when they’ve crossed the line by uploading content that undermines that goal, and your feedback has helped to make this system work better for the entire community.", announced YouTube team in a blog post.The global roll out for the system is slated for the February 25th.
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