X
Business

Google's YouTube: If creators get badly out of line, here's how we'll punish them

YouTube will cut off ads and revenue for creators who severely violate its policies and cause harm to others.
Written by Liam Tung, Contributing Writer
youtube-logo-fullcoloronbackground.jpg

YouTube content might be treated as a severe violation if it traumatizes people, promotes violence or hatred, demonstrates cruelty, or sensationalizes the pain of others,

Image: YouTube

YouTube has announced a new set of policies and penalties aimed at punishing the "egregious actions" of some YouTubers.

The new rules follow YouTube last week suspending ads on YouTube star Logan Paul's channel after he posted a video of himself tasering a dead rat.

He also pulled an apparently unhealthy fish out of a pond and gave it CPR as a joke. The videos were part of his comeback following a month's break due to his scandalous suicide forest video.

YouTube has posted a new support page detailing repercussions for YouTube creators who commit "severe or egregious" violations of its policies and who cause widespread harm to the YouTube community, including other creators, viewers and advertisers.

It notes that content might qualify as a severe or egregious violation if a creator "conducts a heinous prank where people are traumatized, promotes violence or hate toward a group, demonstrates cruelty, or sensationalizes the pain of others in an attempt to gain views or subscribers".

The punishment for such transgressions may include being removed from Google Preferred and suspending, concealing or removing the creator from YouTube Originals.

Creators channels can also lose the ability to serve ads, earn revenue, and may also be removed from the YouTube Partner Program. Creators may also lose the ability to be recommended through appearances on the Home page, Trending tab or in Watch Next recommendations.

YouTube has faced criticism for its inconsistent enforcement of policy violations. While it removed Paul's preferred status over the suicide video, it hadn't penalized him for harassing Tokyo residents.

It was also criticized for failing to detect thousands of disturbing videos aimed at children, which resulted in Mars, Adidas, HP, and Deutsche Bank pulling ads from YouTube.

YouTube says the new sanctions on violations of its policies are aimed at enabling a swifter response.

"In the past, we felt our responses to some of these situations were slow and didn't always address our broader community's concerns," explained YouTube's vice president of product management, Ariel Bardin.

"Our ultimate goal here is to streamline our response so we can make better, faster decisions and communicate them clearly."

Previous and related coverage

Google: Russian groups did use our ads and YouTube to influence 2016 elections

Google, Facebook, and Twitter reveal how Russian agents reached millions of US voters before the 2016 election.

Google shuts down neo-Nazi site's domain and YouTube channel

Tech firms have moved to cut off a hate site after this weekend's violent protests in Charlottesville.

Editorial standards