YouTube has made some changes to its community guidelines, which set out rules that creators uploading videos to the platform must follow and the penalties if they do not.
The biggest change is that, as of later this month, YouTube will add an extra warning into the process that kicks off whenever people upload content that breaks the rules. That process is a three strikes system, with the penalties for rule breaking increasing with each offence, ultimately resulting in whole channels being deleted.
The extra warning will basically provide a one-time-only free pass for YouTube creators who break the rules for the first time. The offending content will be removed, but no other sanctions will occur. The Google site says this extra warning is being added basically as an educational tool, the hope being that as soon as that warning appears on an account, the creator will make it their business to learn the dos and don'ts of publishing on YouTube. Once that free pass warning has been used up, the three-strikes system begins.
The community guidelines cover things like posting violent, hateful or threatening content, or impersonating another channel, but do not include copyright violations. A separate though similar system applies to when YouTubers post videos containing other people's content - including unlicensed music - which is linked in to the platform's Content ID system. The rules and penalties around copyright violations remain unchanged.