YouTube finally makes a creator-friendly change to how it handles suspensions

Looking at it from far enough away, being a YouTube creator seems like the best job in the world: film yourself doing what you love, share it with millions of viewers who hold similar interests, and watch the views (and those ad dollars) roll in. Of course, in reality, it can be much more of a frantic hustle, where you’re constantly trying to appease not just Google’s ever-changing algorithms, but fickle viewer habits, as well. If the situation weren’t difficult enough, YouTube has a reputation for aggressively going after accounts it perceives as violating it polices, often with a “shoot suspend first, ask questions later” attitude. To the great relief of YouTubers everywhere, Google is finally making some creator-friendly changes to the way it handles suspensions.

Today we’re talking specifically about the YouTube Partner Program (YPP), for monetized creators who hit the eligibility thresholds. Being accepted into and remaining part of the YPP is critical for creators whose livelihood depends on their videos, so getting suspended from it threatens to be devastating. Historically, Google would respond to policy violations by suspending accounts from YPP, and only then offering creators who felt wronged a chance to file an appeal. But going forward, in some cases, at least, Google will give creators the chance to make that case for an appeal prior to actually suspending the account.

Depending on what kind of violation we’re talking about, that sounds like it makes a lot of sense, and for more minor stuff, or situations that feel ambiguous, it may not be worth upsetting a creator’s income stream while an investigation is underway. In its announcement, Google explains that this new practice will only apply to “certain policy violations,” which sure seems to leave the door open for immediate suspension in response to the most problematic policy violations. We’ve reached out to Google in an attempt to learn exactly where that line might be, and will update you if we hear of any specifics.

Google also clarifies that early appeals “won’t be available for all suspensions to start with, but we hope to expand this over time.” We’re not sure if that means that Google intends to expand that list of “certain” violations to include more of them, or that only a subset of creator accounts will be able to make early appeals at all while Google gets this change going. Once again, we’ve asked Google to shed some light on these details, and hope to update you with what we learn.