VideoHerd
The 5 Ways You Can End Up in YouTube Jail
Category: YouTube Content Strategy
On YouTube, there are various rules and guidelines on what you're allowed and not allowed to post on the platform.
These guide rails were initially instated to prevent clickbait when YouTube was in its infancy.
However, in 2023 and beyond, they've grown more comprehensive to combat new threats like misinformation, sensitive political topics, and adult material to protect the audience and advertisers using the platform.
The rise of these guidelines has been the epicenter of controversy for creators worldwide.
Some say it stifles their creativity or free speech, and others say YouTube is selling out to governments and corporations.
However, in this video, we're not talking about the politics of YouTube's decisions; we're going to discuss how you can avoid getting your company's videos stuck in YouTube's jail so you can have the best chance of propagating your message on the platform.
YouTube's Censoring Tactics You Want To Avoid:
YouTube has four main techniques to cut content that it deems unsuitable for its platform. Below we will examine them in order of least intensity to highest intensity:
Age-restricting
YouTube's first censorship technique is 'age-restricting' your videos. As the name implies, when your video becomes age-restricted, it only allows it to be viewed by people over 18. After that, your audience can only view it if they are signed into their Google account, where a user has confirmed their age to be older than 18 years of age, drastically reducing the number of people who can watch it.
Viewership declines because a) it's a hassle to sign in to your account to watch a video, b) some people don't want to add their age to their Google account for privacy reasons, and c) they genuinely could be too worried to watch it after seeing the age-restricted warning on the screen.
With all these blockers in place, it starts to lower the number of people interacting with your video. Eventually, it is underserved to users on the platform except for a few of your hardcore subscribers or hyper-specific searchers. However, it's not the end of the world - especially if you have a compelling video.
Getting a video age-restricted happens for many reasons. Some of the most common are if a video contains vulgar language, violence, nudity, or drug-related content.
In fact, YouTube's age-restricted content guidelines,
state you could have your video age-restricted without violating their community-guidelines policies at any time.
Because of this, many people also speculate that YouTube will age-restrict content that it deems unsuitable to its platform based on if it's being released during sensitive times such as during an election, during political unrest, or even during wars.
People speculate that YouTube uses age-restricting as a soft penalty to ultimately steer the creator away from producing more content like it to appease the region's governments.
Demonetizing
Step two in YouTube censorship escalation is demonetizing. Demonetizing is when YouTube removes your ability to make money off your videos and, sometimes, your whole channel.
Avoiding this is essential if you want to keep a healthy YouTube channel.
It is well known in the YouTuber community that certain words in your description, video, title, thumbnail, and metadata are monitored by YouTube's demonetization AI algorithm and determined if they'll pass the monetization eligibility threshold.
More simply, if your video's context and metadata are not breaking the rules, it will be allowed to collect Adsense.
The rules around which words contribute to getting you demonetized and which won't are clouded in mist. These words are also updated daily as the algorithm takes in real-time data to decide what is okay and what's not on the platform on any given day.
On the other hand, more commonly, you will deal with demonetization from copyright claims.
It's essential to use creative assets with the correct licenses and permissions; otherwise, you run a high risk of being flagged as a copyright infringer and having your video demonetized that way.
Make sure to use clear music and original content for the best results.
Content Removal
If you've been a naughty content producer in the YouTube algorithms' eyes, you could have your video content removed altogether.
YouTube reserves the right to remove any video without much explanation. However, it usually only happens when the uploader breaks multiple of YouTube's community guidelines in a single video.
For example, if you start posting hate-speech videos, YouTube could remove them. Getting to this point usually takes a lot of conscious effort, and you don't have to worry too much if you're making business-related videos.
However, there are certain words that YouTube's algorithm may not like where your video could receive a higher likelihood of being removed. An example could be a video on a topic such as COVID-19 origins or Osama Bin Laden's whereabouts, where YouTube sees these topics as being non-advertiser friendly and best to not be on their platform.
Channel Removal
If you've been a menace to the YouTube community by constantly breaching the Community guidelines, you risk having your whole channel removed from the platform. Usually, there will be plenty of warnings on your end in the form of channel strikes, warnings, and removed features.
But in some cases, it can be removed entirely under some exigent circumstances, such as if YouTube thinks your content is promoting fraudulent behavior.
Again, luckily, we B2B YouTubers don't have to concern ourselves too much with this if we're continually making solid, valuable content for our industries.
Strikes and Missing Features
Finally, one last method to mention is YouTube's 3-strike system for enforcing Community Guidelines.
can be attached to your account if your content breaches community guidelines. An example of this would be receiving a copyright claim, losing the appeal, or producing videos that incite hate speech or violence.
Once you reach 3 strikes, your channel is terminated. Obviously, if you are a B2B YouTube content creator, your videos likely won't ever get this far…unless you are abusing the copyright system. However, for some 'entertainment' channels, this is a worry.
If you do receive a strike, there will be some penalties on your account. For example, the first strike will cause you to lose the ability to make YouTube live streams, upload videos, create custom thumbnails, or even create playlists for 1 week.
The penalties get more severe on your second strike. Check out YouTube's Community Strike Guidelines if you're curious about the penalties behind each strike tier.
Keeping Your Business's YouTube Channel Safe
Now that you know how YouTube protects its viewers and advertisers, you must play within their rules to maximize your company's YouTube channel success whether you're monetized on the platform or not. If you want to know precisely what will put you into the censored filtering techniques applied to your channel, feel free to book a Creative YouTube Consultation session with us today.
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