What happens if you violate YouTube's policies
Content managers who fail to follow YouTube’s policies may receive official warnings if YouTube determines that their misuse of CMS is negligent, deliberate, or harmful. In addition, YouTube may remove any hosted or delivered content that violates YouTube’s terms or policies. Official warnings may affect your company’s eligibility for certain YouTube programs & CMS features, so it is important that you have adequate internal controls in place to prevent unauthorized access to your systems and comply with all of YouTube’s policies, guidelines, and requirements.
Losing access to CMS features
In addition to official warnings, partners who misuse or abuse CMS features may lose access to those features or other related features. This is usually temporary, and typically lasts for a set period of time. We may also temporarily restrict your access to CMS features to prevent imminent harm to the content management ecosystem. The amount of time a partner must wait before regaining access to a feature depends on a number of factors, such as the severity of the violation, the reason it occurred, the impact on a partner’s business, and the partner’s violation history. In some cases, we may deem that permanent loss of certain features is appropriate. Your partner manager will have information about the specific details and next steps. If you do not have a partner manager, you can contact the Creator Support team for more information.
Your responsibilities as a content manager
YouTube’s Content Management System (CMS) is a powerful suite of tools that could harm the YouTube ecosystem if used improperly. Content managers are responsible for ensuring that all hosted and delivered content (such as channels, videos, art tracks, asset metadata, Content ID references, etc.) follow all of YouTube’s policies and guidelines, including our Terms of Service, Community Guidelines, monetization requirements, and content manager policies.
Repeated and egregious violations
We take these policies very seriously. Partners who repeatedly or egregiously violate our content manager policies will face harsher penalties. These penalties may include losing access to additional CMS features, losing specific features for longer periods of time, or losing access to CMS entirely and termination of any contracts with YouTube.
In some cases, we may issue a “final warning” to comply with our policies. Content managers who are issued an official final warning notification will lose access to most of their CMS features until they can pass an abuse audit sometime within the following year. Any additional violations of our content manager policies in the following year, as well as failing to request and pass an abuse audit will put their contracts at risk of termination.
Ownership of Multiple Content Owners
Note that if you have a controlling stake in multiple content managers on YouTube, violations incurred in one content manager could result in penalties across all content managers under your ownership.
General Content Manager policies
These policies apply to every partner with access to the YouTube CMS
Content managers are responsible for making sure that all linked channels follow YouTube’s content policies and guidelines. This policy applies to content uploaded to both Owned & Operated (O&O) and Affiliate channels.
Policy requirements
- Content managers must have less than 30 abuse events (such as terminations, suspensions, or demonetizations) over a 90-day period. This policy applies to channels in both your affiliate and non-affiliate accounts.
- Content managers must have less than 10 channel abuse events on their non-affiliate accounts over a 90-day period.
Policy violations
Exceeding this threshold will count as one violation of this policy. The first violation in a 90-day period will result in a 1-month suspension. During a suspension, you can’t create or link new channels to your Content Manager.
The second violation in a 90-day period will result in a 2-month suspension. The third and final violation will result in penalties, which may include long-term suspension or termination of your contracts with YouTube.
What you can do to follow the policy
- Educate the channels you manage about YouTube’s Community Guidelines and advertiser-friendly content guidelines. Make sure they act in accordance with YouTube’s Terms of Service.
- Check for abuse events regularly, especially in recently linked accounts.
- Export your channel list regularly to monitor the number of channel terminations beneath your Content Manager.
- Don’t link more channels to your Content Manager than you can manage.
- Thoroughly review channels before adding them to your Content Manager.
Policy requirements:
- Content managers must maintain above a 90% acceptance rate for their channel linking invitations each month.
- Content managers that fall below 90% acceptance rate may have channel invites throttled for their entire content owner family for 1 month.
What you can do to follow the policy:
- Send your invitations early in the month.This gives your creators enough time to accept the invitation.
- Only send invites to channels you know and with whom you actually have a business relationship.
- Reach out to creators and remind them to accept their invitations, if needed.
Policy requirements:
- Content managers are prohibited from engaging in practices that attempt to go around or interfere with YouTube’s systems, processes, or policies.
- Violating this policy may be considered egregious abuse, and may result in termination of your entire content owner family.
Examples of violating this policy may include:
- Using CMS to improperly monetize content that is ineligible for monetization on YouTube. This includes content that violates our community and brand safety guidelines, as well as content prohibited by any applicable laws and regulations.
- Manually adding your ownership to Content ID assets that you do not have a legitimate intellectual property interest in, even temporarily.
- Using manual Content ID claiming to circumvent the claim dispute resolution process.
- Rolling up any channel to your CMS that was not approved by YouTube in cases where prior approval is necessary.
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Using or benefitting from exploits or participating in techniques designed to increase your earnings on YouTube through invalid or fraudulent means.
Policy requirements:
What you can do to follow the policy:
- Use care when selecting new channels to manage. Avoid adding channels that might pose a risk to your strike total.
- Most partners perform best when they keep the number of channels on an O&O content owner below 120.
- Educate the channels you manage about copyright and ensure they act in accordance with YouTube’s policies.
- Ensure you maintain proper internal controls as you increase the number of channels you manage.
- Content managers are responsible for every action taken using their CMS account.
- Make sure you have adequate safeguards monitoring your employees’ access and compliance with our policies. Companies are responsible for the actions of their individual employees.
- This policy also applies to third-party companies hired to administer a CMS account.
- Giving unaffiliated or prohibited third parties access to your CMS account for compensation or other gain is strictly forbidden.
- Do not rent, lease, or sell access to your CMS account.
- If you have partnered with a third party to administer your CMS account on your behalf, that organization must have a direct partnership agreement with us.
- Do not give access to your CMS account to organizations (or associated individuals) that have a history of abuse.
- If YouTube finds that an unaffiliated or prohibited party has gained access to your CMS account, YouTube may take action. For instance, YouTube may revoke an individual’s access or terminate any associated contracts.
- For example, artist interviews could be considered substantially related.
- Music partners with non-music content should discuss possible solutions with their partner manager to avoid potential loss of feature access, such as the ability to link channels.
Policies for Content ID
These policies apply to partners with access to the Content ID matching system. You can find out more about qualifying for Content ID in the Help Center.
Policy requirements
- You must have exclusive rights to the material in the reference file for the territories where you claim ownership.
- Examples of content that is ineligible for use as a reference:
- Content licensed non-exclusively from a third party, such as regional broadcasts of a major sporting event.
- Content released under Creative Commons or similar free/open licenses.
- Footage, recordings, or compositions that are in the public domain.
- Clips from other sources used under fair use principles.
- Content that is sold or licensed at scale for incorporation into other works, such as production music.
- Examples of content that is ineligible for use as a reference:
This requirement applies to both audio and visual components of your reference. For example, if your audiovisual reference contains unlicensed third-party audio, that content should be removed before delivery.
- All reference files must be sufficiently distinct to allow for accurate matching.
- Examples of content that is ineligible for use as a reference:
- Karaoke recordings, remasters, and sound-alike recordings.
- Sound effects, soundbeds, or production loops.
- Sound recordings of public domain or third-party content that is similar to other sound recordings of that content, such as classical music or certain remixes.
- Examples of content that is ineligible for use as a reference:
- All reference files must represent an individual piece of intellectual property.
- Examples of content that is ineligible for use as a reference:
- Compilations of songs or short form video content.
- Mashups or continuous DJ mixes.
- Countdown lists or full album sound recordings.
- Examples of content that is ineligible for use as a reference:
- All reference files used to monetize content must comply with YouTube’s content policies.
- These policies include our Community Guidelines and monetization policies.
Special restrictions on video game content
- Only video game publishers can deliver references with gameplay footage or video game original soundtracks (OSTs).
- Original video game soundtracks are defined as sound recordings created specifically for a video game, not tracks licensed for inclusion in a game.
- This policy includes VODs of live streamed video game content.
- Use the Copyright Match Tool or manual claiming to protect this content.
- All sound recording assets for covers of video game OSTs must use a route to review policy.
- For these assets, melody matching to embedded compositions can result in many improper claims that may contradict the wishes of the video game publisher.
Policy requirements:
- All content managers must keep invalid Content ID references < 1% of their content owner catalogue and not exceed 500 invalid references within a 30 day period.
- Content owners that exceed this may have reference delivery throttled or disabled.
About manual claiming
Manual claiming is a feature that lets content managers manually place claims on videos that contain their content. It should only be used to fix gaps in claiming coverage where content eligible for Content ID was not automatically claimed. If a type of content isn't eligible for Content ID, it shouldn’t be claimed with manual claiming.
Only partners who’ve demonstrated a profound need are given access to the manual claiming tool. In order to maintain a healthy, fair ecosystem that is consistent with YouTube's four freedoms, manual claiming has strict requirements for its use.
Restrictions on what content you can claim
| Restriction | Details |
|---|---|
| Only claim videos that contain copyrighted content that you own exclusively. | Only claim content that is present within the uploaded video. Don’t manually claim content (or portions of content) that you don’t own.
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| Only use manual claiming within the scope of what’s potentially claimable with Content ID matching. |
Content ID’s matching system only supports claiming audio, visual, and melody matches between an uploader’s video and partner-provided reference content. All manual claims must be aligned with this core functionality. Don’t manually claim videos based on a thumbnail or still image.
Content ID only supports rights management for music compositions, and not other forms of written or scripted works. For other use cases, we recommend submitting a legal takedown request or privacy complaint. |
| Don’t manually claim videos that are currently, or were previously, claimed by an asset for the same content. | This restriction includes manually claiming videos that have successfully disputed a previous claim for the same content. Manually creating duplicate, competing claims may be considered an egregious violation of our Circumventing Systems policy. |
| Don’t use manual claims to create an invalid revenue sharing arrangement among existing claims on the video. | Violating this policy may be considered an egregious violation of our circumventing systems policy. |
| Don’t manually claim videos if your ownership is, or should be, embedded in other assets. | Don't make a manual composition claim on a segment of a video if it is already claimed by a sound recording asset containing your composition. Composition ownership should be embedded in sound recordings whenever possible. |
Restrictions on how you claim content
| Restriction | Details |
|---|---|
| You’re required to manually review the content you are claiming before submitting a manual claim. |
Automation of the manual claiming process is not permitted. See the manual action policy. |
| All assets that are used to make manual claims must have accurate, human-readable metadata and valid reference content. | The only exception to this is where the reference material for the claimed content is unsuitable for matching or prohibited by our reference policy.
While these assets do not require references, all claims must be for the same, distinct content and accurately described by the metadata. (e.g. no ‘bucket' or 'catch-all' assets). |
| Assets used in manual claiming must accurately reflect the scope of your ownership. | For example, if you are a regional broadcaster claiming re-uploads of licensed content, you cannot use manual claiming to place a global block policy if you do not have global rights to that content. Additionally, broadcasters may have rights to show licensed content in a region, but that does not always mean they have rights to claim videos containing that content in that region. |
| All manual claims must include accurate timestamps that identify where the claimed content exists in the video. | Individual matching segments must be specified with discrete timestamps. Deliberately or repeatedly providing misleading timestamps may be considered a serious violation of our policies. |
| Don’t manually claim content with a 'monetize' policy that violates YouTube’s community or brand safety guidelines. | This may be considered a violation of our Circumventing Systems policy. Read more here. |
| Manual claims on audio content that is only present in a small portion of a video may only use a monetize policy in very limited circumstances. | Generally, manual claims on short uses of audio content may only use a block or track policy unless the claimed content: Is part of a video compilation, music countdown, or music-themed challenge.
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| Manual claims on “unintentional use” of audio content may not use the 'monetize' policy, but you may still generally apply the 'track' or 'block' policy on any use of your content. | For the purposes of this policy, we define “unintentional use” as instances where:
Some examples of “unintentional use” are:
Examples of where use is not considered unintentional include:
|
Content ID and manually blocking critical content
- “Critical” means the purpose of using the content is to critique and/or portray the content, its subjects, its creators, or its rightsholders in a negative or unflattering way.
- “Manual action” includes but is not limited to applying a manual claim or changing the policy of an existing claim to block.
- If you believe the content infringed on your copyright-protected work, file a DMCA takedown request instead.
- If your DMCA takedown request is rejected, you are still not allowed to take any manual actions to claim the content. This includes, but is not limited to, adding a manual claim and instituting a block policy on the content.
Tips for avoiding issues:
- Keep an eye on your “block only” claims, and report any issues you find directly to your partner manager.
- Resolving unclear ownership of assets and reference material.
- Reviewing potential and disputed copyright claims.
Policy requirements
- Manual actions require human review and can’t be automated or scripted.
- All manual actions, such as confirming potential or disputed claims, must:
- Accurately reflect the scope of your ownership.
- Abide by all relevant laws and regulations.
- Comply with all of YouTube’s policies, such as monetization eligibility requirements.
Restrictions
- Do not take a manual action within Content ID that results in the blocking of content which is 1) critical of you or the clients that you represent, and 2) contains excerpts of your copyright-protected work.
- “Critical” means the purpose of using the content is to critique and/or portray the content, its subjects, its creators, or its rightsholders in a negative or unflattering way.
- “Manual action” includes but is not limited to applying a manual claim or changing the policy of an existing claim to block.
- Please file a DMCA takedown request if you believe the content infringes on your copyright-protected work.
- If your DMCA takedown request is rejected asking you to consider exceptions to copyright, you are still not allowed to take any manual actions to place block claims on the content. This includes, but is not limited to, adding a manual claim and instituting a block policy on the content.
Policy requirements
- All assets must have accurate, consistent, human-readable metadata.
- It should be clear to an uploader what content is being claimed and who the owner of that content is. The minimum amount of metadata you must include depends on the type of content:
- Sound recording or music video: include the ISRC, title, artist, and record label.
- Music composition: include the title and writer.
- Television episode: include the show title and either the episode title or episode number.
- Movie: include the title and directors.
- Sports broadcast: include the competitor or team names and date of event.
- Other web assets: should accurately describe the associated reference content.
- Music partners are responsible for the accuracy of the metadata they include for the purposes of content delivery and Art Track creation.
- If the metadata you deliver doesn’t meet our quality standards, we reserve the right to restrict or throttle content delivery.
- It should be clear to an uploader what content is being claimed and who the owner of that content is. The minimum amount of metadata you must include depends on the type of content:
- Content managers must use the appropriate asset type.
- For example, partners may not create web assets for music content. Music video assets can’t be used for recordings of live performances that a music label didn’t create.
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- Don’t create duplicate assets for content if an asset for that content already exists in the Content ID system.
- Add your ownership to existing assets instead of creating new ones.
- Don’t add your ownership to an asset if you don’t actually have ownership of that intellectual property.
- Doing so may be considered a violation of our circumventing systems policy and put your partnership agreement with YouTube at risk.