What happens if I get a strike?
Why do we have two different systems?
We have two systems because we see Community Guidelines strikes and Copyright strikes as separate issues.
Copyright and Community Guidelines violations happen for different reasons. Our Community Guidelines are rules that we want creators and viewers to follow to keep the YouTube Community safe. Copyright rules are in place to make sure that creators' rights are protected and that everyone follows the law when using content in their videos, live streams and stories.
You may be familiar with copyright restrictions but unfamiliar with our policy around nudity and sexual content. Or you may know about our policies around thumbnails but not realise that using someone else's song in your video could result in a copyright strike. We wanted to give you the opportunity to learn about all of our policies.
If you want to learn more about what types of things are considered copyright violations, you can read:
If you want to learn more about our Community Guidelines, you can watch this video or review the individual policy in the Help Centre.
Why are the outcomes of each type of strike different?
We've designed the penalties for copyright strikes and Community Guidelines strikes in a way that best helps users learn from their experience and get back to enjoying YouTube. For Community Guidelines strikes, we found that users are often able to quickly understand why their content broke the rules once they receive a warning and visit the corresponding policy page.
If it's your first strike, you'll need to complete Copyright School.
Why don't you always get a warning?
Whether you get a warning depends on a few things, like if it was a community guidelines or copyright violation, or if it's your first violation.
We understand that mistakes happen. That's why the first time that your content doesn't follow one of our community guidelines, we issue a warning. To have a community guidelines warning expire after 90 days, you can take policy training. We hope that it gives you the chance to learn about our policies and avoid it happening again. If you violate a different policy after completing the training, you will get another warning. We may prevent repeat offenders from taking training in the future.
If we get a copyright takedown request, however, we take the upload down and issue a copyright strike, even if it's the first time. We do that to comply with the law. In order to have a video taken down, the copyright owner must submit a complete and valid legal request.
How do I know which kind of strike I have?
When we let you know about the strike, we'll let you know which kind of strike you have received. If it's a Community Guidelines strike, we'll also tell you which policy your content violated.
Community Guidelines and copyright strikes will be visible in your Studio dashboard or within your Content tab.
What do I do if I get a strike?
We understand that mistakes happen and people don't mean to violate our policies or infringe on someone else's copyright. We know that getting a strike can be scary, but there are actions that you can take to avoid a lasting negative impact on your channel.
If you get a Community Guidelines strike, we recommend that you do the following:
- Learn about our Community Guidelines to make sure that your content follows our policies.
- After reviewing our policies, if you think that we've made a mistake, let us know. You can appeal the decision here.
If you get a copyright strike, you have the following options:
- Wait for it to expire: Copyright strikes expire after 90 days. If it's your first strike, you'll need to complete Copyright School.
- Get a retraction: You can contact the person who claimed your video and ask them to retract their claim of copyright infringement.
- Submit a counter notification: If your video was mistakenly removed because it was misidentified as infringing, or qualifies as a potential fair use, you may wish to submit a counter notification.