Gaming YouTube is a mess thanks to a new profanity policy

Swearing on YouTube has change into difficult.

In November, YouTube up to date the profanity policy in its advert pointers, which additional restricts what customers can or can’t say in a video. Now, every kind of curse phrases “are treated equally,” slightly than thought of at totally different ranges of “severity.” Videos with profanity within the thumbnail, title, or first seven seconds could also be demonetized. (Under this policy, “hell” and “damn” are not thought of profanities.)

This week, gaming content material creators are saying they’ve been impacted by the policy, as movies new and previous — together with movies posted earlier than the new policy was enacted — had been marked for “limited” advert income. Videos have been demonetized for one thing so simple as curse phrases within the first few seconds. And YouTube’s high creators are questioning the viability of the platform, thanks to this new policy and its moderation.

YouTube’s up to date profanity policy gained visibility on Sunday when gaming creator Daniel Condren, or RTGame on YouTube, made a video about his experiences with it. In the video, the creator mentioned that YouTube flagged a compilation video of his finest clips from 2022, limiting its means to generate advert income. YouTube additionally marked it “age-restricted,” which means solely folks with age-authenticated YouTube accounts, which require a authorities ID, can view the video. Daniel mentioned this lowered the variety of views the video acquired and made it tougher for him to earn money off of it.

Condren initially hoped that the restricted advert income and age-restriction designations can be eliminated as soon as a individual from YouTube help reviewed his video. YouTube makes use of a mixture of people and machine-learning know-how to take away content material that violates its insurance policies as rapidly as potential. If a person, like Condren, thinks that a mistake was made after an preliminary strike, they will enchantment for a real-life individual to evaluate the content material and see if it falls inside pointers. Condren made his compilation video utilizing his beforehand revealed movies, which YouTube had not marked with any restrictions, so he thought the problem might be resolved. This additionally wasn’t his first time interacting with YouTube help. When one among Condren’s movies was flagged, a yr prior, he resolved the matter after a YouTube employee reviewed the video.

However, his method appeared to backfire this time. After he flagged the problem by asking for assistance on Twitter, another video was marked as age-restricted, and several other extra had been demonetized. After a individual from YouTube help reviewed the movies, YouTube maintained its place, Daniel defined, as he confirmed screenshots from a help e-mail. His video concerning the standard horror sport The Quarry now violated the platform’s violent and graphic content material pointers, thus making it appropriate for age-restriction. Other movies had been marked for restricted monetization due to the new swearing policy.

“It’s genuinely depressing haha. Because I asked YouTube for help with restoring my restricted video [and] I had dozens more limited. I love making videos on YouTube but this has really shown that any success on the platform can disappear on a whim,” Condren advised Polygon through e-mail.

Polygon has contacted YouTube for remark and can replace the story upon response.

Image: Supermassive/2K Games

Content creator frustration has reached a boiling level. It’s not simply concerning the cursing, or the truth that demonetization can retroactively apply to movies posted earlier than such restrictions went into impact. It’s the particularities of the policy. People can nonetheless technically swear. YouTube’s policy says “occasional use of profanity” won’t “necessarily” make a video “unsuitable for advertising,” like within the case of a music video. But these exceptions could make it look like cursing is simply a matter of leaping by the precise hoops.

Some creators are testing out these limits. In a brief video titled “youtube is run by fools,” the voice actor and comic gaming creator SungWon Cho, often called ProZD, notes discrepancies over the persistent lack of moderation for hateful content material on the platform, whereas swearing turned more and more moderated. (Cho has appeared in Polygon’s video content material prior to now.) In his video, after passing the 15-second mark, he says, “Thank you, YouTube, you fucking donkeys,” and later provides, “What a smart policy that wasn’t created by a bunch of numbskull dumb fucks.” According to a follow-up video, the primary has since not been demonetized.

“It’s immensely frustrating, and it incentivizes me to continue to plan for a future where YouTube is no longer part of my life. When sudden policy changes can significantly affect your livelihood at the drop of a hat, you realize just how unsustainable this career is in the long run,” Cho advised Polygon over e-mail.

To add insult to harm, creators have described poor communication on the a part of YouTube help. According to Condren, YouTube didn’t give him discover that his movies had been flagged. He discovered by sitting at his desk and periodically hitting refresh on his YouTube account web page, checking for adjustments to his movies’ advert income standing. “I put hundreds of hours of my life into this content. I’m really proud of it. It’s always been my dream to be an entertainer and to do this. And now I’m sat here, watching parts of my livelihood just disappear. No notification. No fanfare,” he mentioned within the video.

As a consequence, Condren has reconsidered his relationship with the platform. “It feels more important than ever for me to diversify my content across multiple channels such as Twitch. There’s very little security on YouTube when the policies on what is and isn’t allowed can be changed and applied retroactively,” he advised Polygon.

As for what viewers can do, Cho mentioned it comes again to supporting your creators in different methods.

“If you are a fan of anyone on YouTube, please support them not just with views. Actually subscribe to them, share their videos, engage with them, follow them on other social media. That’s the best way to ensure you can continue to see more videos made by creators that you enjoy.”