YouTube may Fix Disputable Policy Demonetizing Videos Containing Profanity

However, the service is not revealing what it’s doing

YouTube has decided to modify its restriction on profane language. In response to The Verge’s inquiry, the Google platform stated that it was “making some adjustments” to certain elements of the profanity policy unveiled in November amidst criticism from content creators. Under this rule, ads would be either limited or entirely removed if an inappropriate word were used within fifteen seconds of starting a video and featured prominently throughout. Likewise, any clip with swearing occurring during its first seven seconds or dominating the entire piece could only suffer de-monetization as punishment.

Although this policy may not seem like an issue on its own, YouTube has been enforcing it to videos uploaded prior to the rule’s implementation. According to Kotaku, many videos have been demonetized for channels such as RTGame due to these new regulations and producers haven’t had much luck with appealing to them either. Even editing the video is off-limits in order for it to pass the criteria guidelines of YouTube.

Communication has been a major issue for YouTube users. More often than not, those who have violated the policy are left in the dark about what exactly they did wrong and typically only find out about changes after their content is demonetized. Additionally, there appears to be inconsistency with some videos being flagged while others that should’ve been taken down remain untouched. For example, ProZD’s criticism of the policy — created carefully such that it complied with all rules still lost its ad revenue two days later.

YouTube has yet to unveil exactly what will be altered in its policy. Hence, it is uncertain if the amended regulations would satisfy those affected. In the meantime, content creators are being urged to vigilantly monitor their use of explicit language. Although there isn’t an immediate departure from YouTube en masse, some video makers have started relying less heavily on YouTube as a source of revenue due to this uncertainty.