Dirty-mouthed creators rejoice, YouTube is adjusting its swearing policy after backlash, The Verge reports.
In November, YouTube announced a change in its guidelines for what videos can be monetized. Included in the changes was an adjustment to their inappropriate language guidelines: videos with profanity in the first 8 seconds are demonetized and those with profanity after the first 8 seconds may receive ad revenue.
The new policy appears to apply to every video a creator has ever made on the platform resulting in the demonetization of countless past videos and a cut in the creator’s ad revenue. YouTubers, like ProZD, took issue with the policy and the lack of clear communication from YouTube and spoke out on their channels.
After weeks of complaints from creators, YouTube is going to make adjustments to the policy.
“In recent weeks we’ve heard from many creators regarding this update. That feedback is important to us and we are in the process of making some adjustments to this policy to address their concerns. We will follow up shortly with our creator community as soon as we have more to share,” YouTube spokesperson Michael Aciman told The Verge.
The swearing policy also treats all “varieties of profanity equally meaning they are not differentiated based on level of severity,” with the exception of “hell” and “damn.”
This policy change is another example of how creators’ livelihoods are often subject to the whims of big tech companies.
