YouTube will ease his limitations about swearing videos after an update rolled out in November led to backlash from several creators, and the company will review videos whose monetization was impacted by the policy. In uploaded a video to the Creator Insider channel, the company says it looked at data on how the new rules were enforced and found that they “resulted in a stricter approach than we intended”. The update means creators will still be able to make at least some money off videos, even with some light swearing beforehand, though the restrictions remain confusing and don’t fully revert to the older rules.
As a reminder, late last year the company changed its guidelines for advertiser-friendly content to say that if a video contains swearing within the first 15 seconds, it could be demonetized, i.e. the platform would not place ads on it, seriously it limiting the creator’s ability to generate revenue. A creator can also get a beating if they use a lot of foul language in the video (how much exactly wasn’t clear), and the change is retroactive. Videos made under the old rules that explicitly allowed swearing suddenly weren’t advertiser-friendly anymore.
The new rules those changes aren’t backing out completely, but the company is making some adjustments, as it promised to do in January. For example, the new update ensures that creators are still eligible for some ads if they use “greater foul language” within the first seven seconds of a video, when ads would be turned off completely before that. The company also says that “video content that uses profanity, medium or strong, after the first seven seconds is now eligible for monetization unless used repeatedly in the majority of the video.” Again, the latest update prevented those videos from monetizing.
There is definitely still some ambiguity here. Creators have pointed out that it’s not clear what YouTube means when it says they shouldn’t swear in the “majority of the video”. However, it may help that YouTube no longer treats all profanity in the same way. The November update essentially flattened the hierarchy; calling someone an “ass” was just as bad as calling them an “asshole”. Now, words like “bitch,” “douchebag,” “bastard,” and “shit” are all considered “moderate” profanity, while words like “fuck” are “stronger profanity.” (Slurs and derogatory terms are covered by a separate set of rules.)
The company also makes some other clarifications; swearing in background music, backing tracks, and intro or outro music won’t demonetize you, but profanity in thumbnails will, though the company says it did before the November update.
YouTube says these changes will go into effect on March 7, and by March 10 it will have “re-rated” videos that received limited ads due to the November update. According to Michael Aciman, a Google spokesperson, videos that have been completely demonetized will also be reviewed.
In its Creator Insider video, YouTube explains why it retroactively applied the November change, which changed the monetization status of videos that were completely fine under previous guidelines. The TL; DR is that the content is still receiving new ads – if you click on a video from a creator’s backlog, you will still see an ad from current campaigns.
The company is also addressing complaints from some makers that it failed to properly communicate the November changes. The company says there will be a notification about Tuesday’s changes to the Creator Studio, the dashboard where YouTubers upload and edit videos and view analytics and other data.
Reaction to the announcement has been mixed. Twitter commentators called it both a “major dub” (as in “w”, meaning “win”) and a “Common YouTube L” (as in “lose”). SungWon Cho, who goes by ProZD on YouTube and was a vocal critic of the November update, told The edge, “The changes are better in theory, but I can’t know for sure until I see they actually work as promised.”
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