YouTube Update: Remove Community Guidelines Warnings with Policy Training

YouTube has just revised their Community Guidelines system so that if you receive a warning you can go through training to have it removed from your channel. The warnings are also now specific about which policy your channel violated.

This should give creators a better understanding of the policies and gives people a second chance. 

All YouTube creators are required to follow the Community Guidelines. Those guidelines cover what kind of content - including videos, comments, links and thumbnails - is allowed on the platform. Note that copyright has its own policy, and Community Guidelines cover everything other than that.

It has long been the policy that if you get three Community Guidelines strikes, your account may be terminated.

The Community Guidelines strike system was simplified in 2019 so that it works as follows for most channels (it’s a bit different for Official Artist Channels*):

• For your very first Community Guidelines violation, your channel received a warning. That warning was permanent.
• After the warning, any new violation results in a strike. After the 1st strike there is a 7-day freeze on uploading, live streaming, editing playlists and other content.
• A 2nd strike in a 90 day period results in a 14-day freeze on uploading content.
• A 3rd strike in a 90 day period results in channel termination.

The strikes expire after 90 days.

What’s new is that if your channel receives a Community Guidelines warning, you can now go through policy training to also have that warning expire after 90 days.

You can get a friendly overview from YouTube’s Creator Insider channel:


* If an Official Artist Channel receives a Community Guidelines strike it is suspended and becomes a standard channel.

How do Community Guidelines Warnings work now? 

If your YouTube channel violates the Community Guidelines, and it does not have any Community Guidelines strikes or warnings about that violated policy, the video is removed and your channel receives a warning.  

You then have three options: 

• Do nothing
• Submit an appeal, if you think YouTube got it wrong
• Go through the new policy training

The warning and subsequent training will be specific for the policy that was violated.  If the video violated the Hate Speech policy, that's what the training will be about.

If you do go through policy training, what happens if there is another policy violation? 

• If you violate the same policy again within 90 days, your channel will receive a strike.
• If you violate a different Community Guidelines policy within those 90 days you will receive an additional warning, rather than a strike.

What happens if you appeal the warning, and the appeal is unsuccessful? 

If you believe the warning was incorrect, and your video did not violate the Community Guidelines at all, you can appeal. If the appeal is not successful you can still go through the training.

Even if you do not appeal or your appeal is not successful, YouTube strongly encourages you to go through the training: 

“... because it comes with additional benefits. It not only allows you to potentially remove the current warning from your channel, but it also grants you an additional warning if you violate a different Community Guidelines policy, so you have more opportunities to learn and avoid account restrictions in the future.” (fromYouTube Creators)

What if your channel has an old Community Guidelines warning? 

You can go through the policy training even if you received the warning a long time ago, if you want it removed from your channel.

There is no downside to going through the training!  

How to access training after a Community Guidelines Warning

The first time your channel violates the YouTube Community Guidelines it will usually receive a warning, and the violative content will be removed from your channel.

If that happens, and you decide not to appeal, you can access the Community Guidelines policy training from multiple places including:

• Link in the email notifying you of the warning
• Banner in YouTube Studio
• YouTube Studio Dashboard
• YouTube Studio Content tab video listings

The policy training will be specific for the Community Guideline your channel violated.

What happens if you get a Community Guidelines Strike?

Your channel will receive a Community Guidelines strike for new violations of the same policy within 90 days of receiving a warning and going through the training. Any additional violations within 90 days will also result in a strike.

If you believe your content did not violate the Community Guidelines, you can submit an appeal.

Otherwise strikes expire after 90 days.

Three strikes within 90 days and your channel will be terminated.

You can check your channel’s status on the Feature Eligibility tab in YouTube Studio:

1. Sign in to YouTube Studio (studio.youtube.com)
2. Click the Settings Gear on the left menu
3. Click Channel
4. Click the Feature Eligibility tab

Note that deleting a video with a strike does not remove the strike from your account.

More information

Announcement: An update to YouTube Community Guidelines Warnings

YouTube Help: Community Guidelines strike basics on YouTube
YouTube Help: Appeal Community Guidelines actions
Previously: YouTube revises Community Guidelines strike system - no more 90 day live streaming bans!