• In November YouTube updated its advertiser-friendly content guidelines, retroactively demonetising a number of creators.
• A new update reverses that course allowing content with moderate profanity to be eligible for monetisation.
• Strong profanity will still be have limited advertising.

Creators who swear will be less likely to have their content demonetised following an update to YouTube’s advertiser-friendly content guidelines.

Back in November YouTube updated these guidelines which resulted in a massive backlash. Under those guidelines, any swearing within the first eight to 15 seconds of a video would render that video demonetised. Worse still, the guidelines were retroactive so any old content that was previously eligible for monetisation wasn’t any more and so, creators simply stopped earning revenue from that content overnight.

Warning, the video below contains strong language.

Now, creators will be able to use “moderate profanity” and still be eligible for monetisation.

According to YouTube, effective 7th March the following updates to the guidelines are applicable:

• Usage of moderate profanity at any time in the video is now eligible for green icons. 
• Usage of stronger profanity, like the f-word in the first 7 seconds or repeatedly throughout the majority of the video can now receive limited ads (under the November update, this would have received no ad revenue)
• Video content using profanity, moderate or strong, after the first 7 seconds will now be eligible for green icons, unless used repetitively throughout the majority of the video (under the November update, this would have received no ad revenue). 
• We’ve also clarified our guidance on how profanity in music is treated; moderate or strong profanity used in background music, backing tracks, intro/outro music can now earn full ad revenue (previously this would have received no ad revenue).
• Use of any profanity (moderate or stronger profanity) in titles and thumbnails will still be demonetized and cannot run ads, as was the case before the update in November.

What classifies as strong profanity? According to YouTube the “f-word” is one example. A full list of examples of what will and won’t get a creator demonetised can be found at this link. Unfortunately there isn’t a list

Creators who had legacy content demonetised will reportedly have that content re-reviewed.

“The videos that received a yellow icon as a result of the November update will be re-reviewed by March 10th and, if they get a green icon, the new monetization status will be reflected in Studio. Note that some videos may remain demonetized if they still violate other Advertiser-friendly content guidelines. You can refer to your rating status page in Studio to check by which guideline your video may be impacted,” YouTube wrote.

We still find it bizarre that YouTube doesn’t make provisions for advertisers to align their content with creators who appeal to a more adult audience. Just like brands feature in movies with violence, swearing and more, YouTube should really be capitalising on the adults who spend time on the platform.

It remains to be seen if these changes positively impact creators who use more colourful language but we should have a clearer indication after 10th March. YouTube didn’t mention whether creators would be compensated for the revenue they’ve lost between November 2022 and March 2023 but we wouldn’t hold our breath waiting for that.