F * ck, you can swear freely again
Swearing in YouTube videos is made a bit easier again. YouTube had actually launched a new policy where as a creator you didn’t get paid if you said words like “asshole” or “douchebag” in your video. However, there was so much criticism from the creator community that the video platform has reversed the policy on swearing.
Swearing on YouTube
In the United States it is a bit easier to swear in a conversation, because the word f * cking is very easy to put in front of something (and doesn’t even have to be a real swear word, because it is mainly just ‘very bad ‘). In the Netherlands that is less easy: some people use certain diseases to incite something extra, but otherwise swear words are generally quite independent words.
Be that as it may, YouTube actually stopped using them. If you swore in the first 15 seconds of your video, you would have problems with your ads and ultimately earn less. However, that also had an effect on your old videos, making them suddenly a lot less valuable. That while at that time there was no policy for swearing, so that you are actually being punished for something that was not punishable at all at the time. In addition, video makers were not very happy that YouTube is considering this, while you can post videos full of hate speech.
Policy modified
In addition, it was not clear which words are considered swear words. As we just wrote: is f * cking really still a swear word? Or if you exclaim ‘damn it!’, then many people will not regard that as a swear word at all, precisely because you can also use it positively. ‘Damn’, the English equivalent of damn, was allowed. But not asshole. Quite unusual, because the latter is actually just another name for the anus. Anyway, those insecurities are now gone as YouTube allows swearing again, including monetization of these types of videos.
It really doesn’t quite do that. In a video from YouTube, it explains more about swearing in videos and how it still adjusts the policy. See the above. In a very pleasant accent, a man explains that the word ‘asshole’ is safe again, but that a word like ‘f * ck’ does indeed reduce your income. However, that only applies to the first 7 seconds of your video, or if you use the same forbidden swear word several times throughout your video. But it is no longer the case that swear words make you earn absolutely nothing, it is just a bit less.
Good to know: if your background music in the video is full of swear words, that is allowed. Your income will therefore not decline.
