Since September 2020, YouTube has changed their guidelines and policy and in doing so, deleted more than 8,000 videos. In this blog post we will update you on what has changed so you can ensure that your channel continues doing well and you can steer clear from hassles.
1. Videos that claim that the 2020 American presidential election was rigged will be taken down
Interestingly, no video is allowed to insinuate that the 2020 American elections were rigged in any way. This includes any theories that may encompass voter fraud or an error in the counting of votes, etc. Videos that violate these guides will be immediately deleted from the platform.
2. No Sub for Sub or Giveaways only to gain new subscribers
Earlier, creators were allowed to offer incentives to viewers to attract a large number of subscribers to their channel within a limited time-frame. Many creators used the “sub for sub” strategy where creators would subscribe back to anyone who would subscribe to their channels, a win-win for both parties.
According to the new “YouTube’s Fake Engagement Policy”, creators can no longer increase their subscribers through “sub for sub” and free giveaway strategies. However, creators can still offer giveaways, as long as the “giveaway criteria” does not explicitly force viewers to subscribe/comment/like/ or take a specific action that impacts the creator’s channel growth directly, in order to receive the giveaway. This means, creators cannot say “Only people who subscribe to my channel are eligible to win a brand new laptop.”
3. 100k subscribers is not enough to guarantee creators a verified channel
Creators look forward to getting a verification badge on YouTube because it adds that extra oomph to a channel. Even if there are no real monetary benefits from being verified, it draws viewers to a channel and builds more trust.
With the new guidelines, it is no longer enough for channels to just have 100k subscribers to guarantee a verification badge. The process got a little more complicated now. For creators who have 100k subscribers, YouTube first assesses the channel to see if it’s worthy. The channel must pass an authenticity test to verify if a real person runs the channel and ensure it does not have a similar name to another popular channel. Finally, YouTube checks if the channel is complete, the description and channel icon is updated, and posts active content.
4. Thumbnails cannot be misleading
Your video thumbnail and title are arguably the most important parts of your video as they are the first things that viewers see and are attracted to. YouTube’s older guidelines only stated that pornographic and violent images cannot be uploaded as thumbnail images. The new guidelines add on to this statement and specify that thumbnails cannot be misleading to what viewers will see in the video. Creators must ensure that the thumbnail correlates with the video and does not attract viewers by giving them a false sense of what to expect, like clickbait.
Remember to keep these new guidelines in mind and brush up with the older guidelines while creating your videos, if you don’t want to get on YouTube’s naughty list. YouTube is cracking down hard on creators and it is important to keep yourself informed.
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