Gaming YouTube is a mess thanks to a new profanity policy

YouTube is now a place where you can swear.

In November, YouTube updated the profanity policy in its ad guidelines, which further restricts what users can or can’t say in a video. Now, all kinds of curse words “are treated equally,” rather than considered at different levels of “severity.” Videos with profanity in the thumbnail, title, or first seven seconds may be demonetized. (Under this policy, “hell” and “damn” are no longer considered profanities.)

This week, gaming content creators are saying they have been impacted by the policy, as videos new and old — including videos posted before the new policy was enacted — were marked for “limited” ad revenue. Video content has been taken down for as small as using curse words during the first few seconds. And YouTube’s top creators are questioning the viability of the platform, thanks to this new policy and its moderation.

YouTube’s updated profanity policy gained visibility on Sunday when gaming creator Daniel Condren, or RTGame on YouTube, made a video about his experiences with it. The creator stated that YouTube had flagged his compilation of clips from 2022 to limit its potential for generating ad revenues. YouTube also marked it “age-restricted,” meaning only people with age-authenticated YouTube accounts, which require a government ID, can view the video. Daniel claimed that the lower number of viewers meant it was less popular and it made it difficult to make money.

Condren originally hoped the age-restrictions and limited advertising revenue would be lifted once someone from YouTube support had reviewed his video. YouTube employs a mix of machine-learning and humans to quickly remove any content violating its policies. Condren can appeal to a human being for review of the content in order to determine if it is within its guidelines. Condren created his compilation video by using previously published videos that YouTube did not restrict, and he believed the problem could be solved. This also wasn’t his first time interacting with YouTube support. When one of Condren’s videos was flagged, a year prior, he resolved the matter after a YouTube worker reviewed the video.

His approach seemed to be backfiring this time. One more video was demonetized after he raised the issue via Twitter. Daniel said that YouTube’s position was maintained after YouTube support looked at the videos. He showed screenshots taken from an email support and explained how YouTube had maintained their position. The video he made about this popular horror game is here.Quarry now violated the platform’s violent and graphic content guidelines, thus making it suitable for age-restriction. The new swearing policy also meant that other videos could not be monetized.

“It’s genuinely depressing haha. YouTube helped me restore my video that was restricted. [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 told Polygon via email.

Polygon reached out to YouTube for comments and will be updating the story once they have received a response.

Image from Supermassive/2K Games

The frustration of content creators has reached boiling point. It’s not just about the cursing, or the fact that demonetization can retroactively apply to videos posted before such restrictions went into effect. It’s the particularities of the policy. Technically, people can swear. YouTube’s policy says “occasional use of profanity” will not “necessarily” make a video “unsuitable for advertising,” like in the case of a music video. However, these exceptions could make it appear that cursing is a matter of jumping through all the correct hoops.

Some creators test these limits. In a short video titled “youtube is run by fools,” the voice actor and comedian gaming creator SungWon Cho, known as ProZD, notes discrepancies over the persistent lack of moderation for hateful content on the platform, while swearing became increasingly moderated. (Cho has appeared in Polygon’s video content in the past.) In his video, after passing the 15-second mark, he says, “Thank you, YouTube, you fucking donkeys,” and later adds, “What a smart policy that wasn’t created by a bunch of numbskull dumb fucks.” According to a follow-up video, the first 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 told Polygon over email.

YouTube support was also poorly communicated, according to creators. According to Condren, YouTube didn’t give him notice that his videos had been flagged. He found out by sitting at his desk and periodically hitting refresh on his YouTube account page, checking for changes to his videos’ ad revenue status. “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 said in the video.

Condren’s relationship with Twitch has been reexamined. “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 told Polygon.

Cho spoke out about what viewers could do to help their creators.

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