A few weeks ago, Google told US Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) that it would allow creators banned for COVID and election misinformation to rejoin the platform. It didn't offer many details in the letter, but now YouTube has explained the restoration process. YouTube's "second chances" are actually more expansive than the letter made it seem. Going forward, almost anyone banned from YouTube will have an opportunity to request a new channel. The company doesn't guarantee approval, but you can expect to see plenty of banned creators back on Google's video platform in the coming months.
This program appears much broader than Google's letter to Jordan suggested. YouTube will now allow any banned creator to request reinstatement, but this is separate from appealing a ban. If a channel is banned, creators continue to have the option of appealing the ban. If successful, their channel comes back as if nothing happened. After one year, creators will now have the "second chance" option.
"We know many terminated creators deserve a second chance," the blog post reads. The option for getting a new channel will appear in YouTube Studio on the desktop, and Google expects to begin sending out these notices in the coming months. However, anyone terminated for copyright violations is out of luck—Google does not forgive such infringement as easily as it does claiming that COVID is a hoax.
The readmission process will still come with a review by YouTube staff, and the company says it will take multiple factors into consideration, including whether or not the behavior that got the channel banned is still against the rules. This is clearly a reference to COVID and election misinformation, which Google did not allow on YouTube for several years but has since stopped policing. The site will also consider factors like how severe or persistent the violations were and whether the creator's actions "harmed or may continue to harm the YouTube community."
A shiny new channel
Someone who successfully appeals a ban gets their channel back with all its videos and subscribers. However, returning to YouTube with the new program is like getting a new channel. Creators will have to rebuild their following, but they can re-upload videos from their original channel, even the ones that got them banned, provided that content is not against YouTube's current rules.
This comes just weeks after Google and YouTube parent company Alphabet agreed to a $24.5 million settlement with Trump over suspending his channel following the 2021 US Capitol riot. Trump's channel was reinstated by Google in 2023 as he ramped up his third bid for the White House.
Creators who get a new channel under this pilot program will find all is effectively forgiven. While they will need to rebuild their subscriber base, they will be permitted to apply for monetization as soon as they reach the necessary channel criteria. Google has often limited monetization on inflammatory content as a way to steer behavior before resorting to an outright ban. It seems certain that Google will be policing content less than it has in recent years—well, as long as you're not infringing copyright, which remains an unforgivable sin on YouTube.
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