Gaming YouTube is a mess thanks to a new obscenity policy

Swearing on YouTube has become a challenge.

In November, YouTube updated the obscenity policy in its ad policies, further restricting what users can and cannot say in a video. Now all types of swear words are “treated equally” instead of being considered at different levels of “severity”. Videos with profanity in the thumbnail, title, or in the first seven seconds can be demonstrated. (For the purposes of this policy, “hell” and “damn” are no longer considered profanities.)

This week, gaming content creators said they were impacted by the policy as new and old videos – including videos posted before the new policy went into effect – were flagged for “limited” ad revenue. Videos demonstrated in the first few seconds for something as simple as swear words. And YouTube’s top creators are questioning the viability of the platform thanks to this new policy and its moderation.

YouTube’s updated obscenity policy became visible on Sunday when game creator Daniel Condren or RTGame shot a video on YouTube about his experience with it. In the video, the YouTuber said that YouTube has reported a compilation video of his best clips from 2022, limiting his ability to generate ad revenue. YouTube has also marked it as “age-restricted,” meaning only people with age-authenticated YouTube accounts that require government-issued ID can watch the video. Daniel said this reduced the number of views on the video and made it harder for him to monetize it.

Condren initially hoped that the limited ad revenue and age restrictions would be removed once a person from YouTube support reviewed his video. youtube uses a combination of human and machine learning technology to remove content that violates its policies as quickly as possible. If a user like Condren thinks a mistake has been made after an initial warning, they can ask a real person to review the content and determine if it’s compliant. Condren made his compilation video using his previously published videos that YouTube hadn’t flagged as restricted so he figured the issue could be solved. This wasn’t the first time he’d interacted with YouTube support, either. When one of Condren’s videos was reported a year ago, he resolved the matter after a YouTube employee reviewed the video.

This time, however, his approach seemed to backfire. After reporting the issue by asking for help on Twitter, another video was marked as age restricted and several more were demonstrated. After a person from YouTube support reviewed the videos, YouTube maintained its position, Daniel explained when showing screenshots from a support email. His video about the popular horror game The Quarry now violated the platform’s violent and graphic content policies, making it eligible for age restriction. Other videos have been flagged for restricted monetization due to the new swearing policy.

“It’s really depressing haha. Because I asked YouTube for help to recover my restricted video [and] I had limited dozens more. I love making videos on YouTube, but this really showed that any success on the platform can vanish on a whim,” Condren told Polygon via email.

Polygon reached out to YouTube for comment and will update the story upon response.

Image: Supermassive/2K Gaming

Content creator frustration has reached boiling point. It’s not just about the swearing or the fact that demonetization can apply retroactively to videos posted before such restrictions went into effect. It is that peculiarities of politics. People can still swear. YouTube’s policy says “Occasional use of profanity” does not “necessarily” make a video “unsuitable for publicity” as in the case of a music video. But these exceptions can make it seem like swearing is all about jumping through the right hoops.

Some developers are testing these limits. In a short video titled “YouTube is Run by Fools,” voice actor and comedian-gaming creator SungWon Cho, known as ProZD, notes discrepancies over the platform’s continued lack of moderation for hateful content amid rampant ranting would. (Cho has appeared in Polygon’s video content in the past.) In his video, after hitting the 15-second mark, he says, “Thanks, YouTube, you bloody jackass,” and later adds, “What smart politics it wasn’t created by a bunch of stupid idiots.” According to a follow-up video, the first hasn’t been demonstrated since.

“This is tremendously frustrating and spurs me on to continue planning for a future where YouTube is no longer a part of my life. When sudden policy changes can significantly affect your livelihood in the blink of an eye, you realize how unsustainable this career is in the long run,” Cho told Polygon via email.

To make matters worse, the creators have detailed poor communication from YouTube support. According to Condren, YouTube didn’t tell him that his videos were reported. He found out by sitting at his desk and periodically clicking “refresh” on his YouTube account page to check for changes in the ad revenue status of his videos. “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 do that. And now I’m sitting here and watching parts of my livelihood just disappear. No notification. No fanfare,” he said in the video.

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

What viewers can do, Cho said, comes down to supporting your creators in other ways.

“If you’re a fan of someone on YouTube, please don’t just support them with views. Actually subscribe to them, share their videos, interact with them, follow them on other social media. It’s the best way to make sure you keep seeing more videos from creators you love.”