YouTube is giving creators violating policies a way to wipe out their warnings

YouTube announced this morning a change to its Community Guidelines that impact creators who break its rules. Starting today, creators will now have the option of taking an educational training course when they receive a warning. When completed, YouTube will lift the warning from the creator’s channel as long as they don’t violate the same policy for 90 days.

This change will allow creators to learn why their content crossed the line so they can avoid other penalties, reducing the number of channels that are terminated from the video platform. By taking the course, YouTube’s creators will have a way to wipe out their initial warning before it leads to a strike. Per YouTube’s current guidelines, channels receiving three strikes in a 90-day period are terminated.

YouTube began issuing one-time warnings for a first policy violation in 2019, and it now says that more than 80% of creators who receive a warning never violate its policies again.

The company says this new policy came about because creators told YouTube they wanted more resources to better understand the rules.

“We also know receiving a strike can be disruptive to a creator’s posting schedule, and for the creators building businesses through our YouTube Partner Program, receiving an unintentional strike is not only frustrating, but can financially impact their bottom line,” YouTube explained in an announcement.

Of course, impacts on creators’ bottom lines also have an impact on YouTube’s revenue, so it makes sense that the company would want to keep more monetizing videos on its site, if possible.

Going forward, creators who take the course and stay clear of the same policy violation for 90 days have the warning lifted from their channel. But if they violate the same policy again before the 90-day period is up, the video will be removed and a strike will be applied to their channel. If the creator violates the same policy after 90 days, the video is removed and the creator is issued another warning. They then have the option of taking a new training course.

Another change to the policy, which may be even more substantial is that YouTube will now issue individual warnings depending on the specific policy they violate instead of one warning for the lifetime of their channel. That means creators who are often skirting YouTube’s rules will have the opportunity to keep their channel from being terminated as they’ll have more opportunities to remove their warnings before they turn into strikes.

YouTube says the three-strike rule is not changing, however — though it seems with this new policy, fewer creators will reach that point.

The company notes its policies around terminating channels repeatedly violating its policies or posting a single case of “severe content” still stand. It says it may prevent repeat offenders from taking training courses in the future, but didn’t share any additional details on how it will determine this.