YouTube is finally changing its strike system to be more transparent

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YouTube has overhauled its enforcement procedures, with a new system that promises to be more transparent about offenses while being more consistent and fair with the punishments meted out. That should come as welcome news to the huge number of creators that use YouTube on a weekly basis.

The video platform has long received ire from the community over its opaque and seemingly-arbitrary punishments. Creators receiving a ‘strike’ often weren’t informed of the exact nature of their offense, leading to much confusion without being enabled to fix their error in future videos.

YouTube says that 98% of creators never receive a strike, as they stay within the community guidelines at all times. Of that other 2%, the majority don’t receive a second strike after their first offense. It’s not clear from the statistics that YouTube mentions what the split between creators that stop uploading after a strike is vs. the percentage of creators that manage to figure out what not to do the next time.

The creator friends I have that received strikes all continued to upload afterward, although only the ones that received DCMA copyright strikes actually knew what they were being flagged for.

How YouTube plans to alter the strike system

Now, for the first infringement, YouTube will remove the content in question, and issue a friendly warning to the creator. After that, a three-strike system will apply, with the creator being notified clearly of which part(s) of the Community Guidelines has been breached.

From YouTube’s blog post:

• The first strike will result in a one-week freeze on the ability to upload any new content to YouTube, including live streaming, and other channel activities. Strikes will expire after 90 days.
• The second strike in any 90-day period will result in a two-week freeze on the ability to upload any new content to YouTube.
• The third strike in any 90-day period will result in channel termination.

While this is overall great news, YouTube still has a lot of work to do in making it a safe place for both creators and viewers. Just this week there was controversy over misuse of the DMCA takedown function by a well-known news outlet, and research pointing to YouTube as the catalyst for the rise in Flat-Earthers in recent years.

What do you think? Glad to see YouTube looking into its own issues or does the company need to do more? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.