YouTube will modify the profanity rules that have sparked backlash from creators

YouTube’s gaming community pushed back This week, the company was rebuffed by some creators who saw their old videos removed from YouTube.

The problem is a company policy change. introduced back in November In order to make certain content more advertiser-friendly. YouTubes advertiser friendly content guidelines made this change. It also changed YouTube’s attitude to violence and profanity.

YouTube appears to be paying attention to creators’ concerns, even though we don’t know what it will do.

“In recent weeks we’ve heard from many creators regarding this update,” YouTube spokesperson Michael Aciman told TechCrunch. “We value their feedback and are working to make adjustments to the policy to address them. As soon as we have additional information, we will contact our creator community.

YouTube expanded its definitions for violence in November beyond the real-world portrayals. It now includes violent content that is directed at a real person or created to create shocking experiences (such brutal mass killing). YouTube said that “standard” game play allowed for gore but only within the first eight seconds of a video. This entire section was open to interpretation for good or bad.

More drastic changes were made to YouTube’s profanity policies. YouTube announced that it will no longer consider “hell” or “damn” profane words. Instead, all other profanities would be lumped together and not differentiated based upon severity (e.g. Words like “shit”, “fuck”, and other profanities will now be treated in the same manner. The new policy also states that “profanity” used in the title or thumbnails of the video or throughout the video could result in no ad revenues.

If the swearing kicks in after the first 8 seconds of a video, it’s still eligible, but some of the changes stood to affect a massive swath of videos —many of which were made well before the changes were announced. The new policies were put into effect at the end December. Creators noticed that some videos had been subject to restrictions that restricted their reach and allowed them to be eligible for ads.

YouTube creator Daniel Condren runs RTGame. explored the impact of the policy change In a video that received more than one million views, Condren posted it to his YouTube channel. Condren has been struggling with the enforcement changes these past weeks after seeing about a dozen videos demonetized, and his request to appeals rejected.

Condren tweeted, “I truly feel like my whole livelihood is at stake if this continues.” “I am so upset that this is happening and that I don’t have any options to fix it.”

YouTube did not respond to our questions regarding its plans to modify the policy. However, we are curious to see if YouTube will reverse enforcement for older videos that were published. This could be a source of income for creators.

The company is trying to make its vast video archive more age-appropriate and advertiser friendly in the face of new regulation that targets social media’s relationship of underage users. But retrofitting age restrictions and new monetization rules onto a platform like YouTube is a delicate balance — and in this case the changes had a swift, sweeping impact that gave creators little time to adapt.