Anyone who uses YouTube must follow the Community Guidelines. These global rules help make sure YouTube is the best place to listen, share, and create community. They outline the types of content that are allowed on YouTube and the rules prohibiting things like spam and harassment, and much more.
NEW: YouTube Community Guidelines System
YouTube relies on a combination of people and technology to report inappropriate content, which helps us enforce these guidelines across the platform.
Learn how to report inappropriate content here.
If we find your content doesn’t follow our Community Guidelines, you’ll typically only receive a warning for the first violation.
To have this warning expire after 90 days, you can take a policy training. However, if your content violates the same policy within that 90 day window, the warning will not expire and your channel will be given a strike. If you violate a different policy after completing the training, you will get another warning.
Repeated violations of our policies– or a single case of severe abuse– may still result in the termination of your account. We may prevent repeat offenders from taking trainings in the future.
After the warning:
- The next time your content is found to violate our policies, you’ll get a Community Guidelines strike. You won't be able to post anything - videos, live streams, stories, custom thumbnails, or posts - for 1 week. This strike expires in 90 days.
- If you get a second strike within 90 days of your first strike, you won't be able to post anything - videos, live streams, stories, custom thumbnails or posts - for two [more] weeks.
- If you get three strikes in the same 90 days, your channel will be terminated.
- Sometimes a single case of severe abuse will result in channel termination without warning. If you think we made a mistake, you can appeal the warning.
Things to keep in mind
- Community Guidelines apply to everything you do on YouTube. Remember them when creating videos, thumbnails, leaving comments, etc.
- If you upload content that violates Community Guidelines, you will get an email to let you know. We’ll also give you info on how to appeal in case a mistake was made.
- Over 86% of creators with a Community Guidelines violation only get a warning. Don’t be afraid to interact - these guidelines are here to help keep YouTube fun and enjoyable for everyone.
- To post content on YouTube, it’s important to follow the Community Guidelines and Copyright laws. If you want to monetize on YouTube, you must follow YouTube channel monetization policies and Advertiser-friendly content guidelines. Take a moment to read through all of the YouTube policies and guidelines tips.
We recommend
- If you get a strike, the notification email will let you know which policy your content violated. Go to the Community Guidelines page, and read through the policy. Keep our policies in mind the next time you upload content to help prevent another Community Guidelines strike.
- Sometimes, content that would otherwise violate our Community Guidelines may stay on YouTube when it has Educational, Documentary, Scientific, or Artistic (EDSA) context. Learn more about what kind of context to add and where to add it to your content.
Next: check out community posts tips