- Okay folks, we need to talk about profanity,
and the update we made at the end
of November to our inappropriate language ad guidelines.
You know my full-time job is monetization policy.
So before we get to the meat of it,
let me say first and foremost,
we have read all of your feedback,
and watched the videos you've uploaded with feedback.
You've told us that retroactive reviews
of older uploads were unexpected
and that the community was not sufficiently informed
of these changes and their impact.
What I'd like to walk you through now is how we've acted
on what we've learned from the update in November.
Let's start with the policy.
Our update last November aimed to improve the clarity
and enforcement of our advertiser-friendly guidelines,
and to make it easier
for creators to monetize brand-safe content.
Since then, we heard concerns
from creators about the impact of this change.
Upon reviewing our own enforcement data,
we found the profanity policy resulted
in a stricter approach than we intended.
As a result, we are making the following changes
to better-reflect the goals
of our initial update in November.
We are no longer treating all profanity equally.
Usage of moderate profanity, words like bitch,
douche bag, asshole, shit,
at any time in the video content
is now eligible for green icons.
Under the November update,
this would've received no ad revenue.
Usage of stronger profanity, like the F word,
in the first seven seconds,
or repeatedly throughout the majority
of the video can now run limited ads.
Under the November update,
this would've received no ad revenue.
Content using profanity, moderate,
or stronger words like fuck
after the first seven seconds will now be eligible
for green icons, unless used repetitively
throughout the majority of the video.
As was the case before the update in November,
use of any profanity, be it something like shit
or the F word in titles and thumbnails will receive
a yellow icon.
Moderate profanity like shit
in either the title
or thumbnail will receive a limited ads rating,
and stronger profanity, like fuck,
in the title
or thumbnail will receive a no-ads rating.
We've also clarified our guidance on how profanity in music
is treated.
Moderate or strong profanity used
in background music, backing tracks,
or intro/outro music can earn ad revenue.
So, what's next?
The videos that received a yellow icon as a result
of the November update will be re-reviewed by March 10th,
and if they get a green icon, the new monetization status
will be reflected in Studio.
Note that some videos may remain with a yellow icon
for inappropriate language,
like I said, if there's profanity
in the title or thumbnail,
while others may still have a yellow icon
if they violate other advertiser-friendly
content guidelines.
For example, if you have a video
with an adult content violation, but under this update,
the video is no longer violative
of our inappropriate language guidelines,
the video will remain demonetized
as the alternate violation remains.
You can refer to your rating status page
in Studio to check which guideline
your video may be impacted by.
Now, I want to explain why we have to re-review older videos
when we make a change.
Basically, older videos still show new ads.
Advertisers target both new and old uploads
based on the kinds of topics they touch on.
For example, the amount of profanity in the video,
not when they were uploaded.
Because of this, we need to make sure that ratings,
even on older videos, are consistent with current policy.
If any of your videos received a yellow icon
as a result of the November update, they will be re-reviewed
and updated, if applicable by March 10th,
and you'll see the monetization status reflected
in YouTube Studio.
Now, on effective communication.
For all our updates
to the advertiser-friendly content guidelines,
we post to our update log, our ad-friendly guidelines forum,
which notifies subscribers of new updates,
the AFG page,
and we do a feature right here on Creator Insider.
Additionally, this time to ensure monetizing creators learn
about this change will also show a notification
in Studio, alerting you to this update
and linking to our forum to read more on the change.
Finally, we'll be monitoring your feedback
to identify any questions you have on today's update,
so let us know what you think in the comments, good or bad,
and we'll be reading through
and trying to find more opportunities to do better
in communicating these changes,
as well as more opportunities to decrease the number
of yellow icons you experience.