People walk past a billboard advertisement for YouTube in Berlin, Germany, on Sept. 27, 2019.
Sean Gallup | Getty Images
YouTube is offering creators who were banned from the platform a second chance.
On Thursday, the Google-owned platform announced it is rolling out a feature for previously terminated creators to apply to create a new channel. Previous rules led to a lifetime ban.
“We know many terminated creators deserve a second chance,” wrote the YouTube Team in a blog post. “We’re looking forward to providing an opportunity for creators to start fresh and bring their voice back to the platform.”
Tech companies have faced months of scrutiny from House Republicans and President Donald Trump, who have accused the platforms of political bias and overreach in content moderation.
Last week, YouTube agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit involving the suspension of Trump’s account following the U.S. Capitol riots on Jan. 6, 2021.
YouTube said this new option is separate from its already existing appeals process. If an appeal is unsuccessful, creators now have the option to apply for a new channel.
Approved creators under the new process will start from scratch, with no prior videos, subscribers or monetization privileges carried over.
Over the next several weeks, eligible creators logging into YouTube Studio will see an option to request a new channel. Creators are only eligible to apply one year after their original channel was terminated.
YouTube said it will review requests based on the severity and frequency of past violations.
The company also said it will consider off-platform behavior that could harm the community, such as activity endangering child safety.
The program excludes creators terminated for copyright infringement, violations of its Creator Responsibility policy or those who deleted their accounts.
YouTube’s ‘second chance’ process fits with a broader trend at Google and other major platforms to ease strict content moderation rules imposed in the wake of the pandemic and the 2020 election.
In September, Alphabet lawyer Daniel Donovan sent a letter to House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, that announced the platform had made changes to its community guidelines for content containing Covid-19 or election-related misinformation.
The letter also claimed that senior Biden administration officials pressed the company to remove certain Covid-related videos, saying the pressure was “unacceptable and wrong.”
YouTube ended its stand-alone Covid misinformation rules in December 2024, according to Donovan’s letter.
