YouTube prepares to welcome back banned creators with “second chance” program

A few weeks ago, Google told U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) that it would allow creators banned over COVID and election misinformation to join the platform. The letter didn’t provide many details, but YouTube has now explained the restoration process. YouTube’s “second chances” are actually broader than the letter suggests. In the future, almost anyone banned from YouTube will have the option to request a new channel. The company doesn’t guarantee approval, but you can expect to see many banned creators return to Google’s video platform in the coming months.

YouTube will now allow banned creators to request reinstatement, but this is separate from seeking a ban. If a channel is banned, creators still have the opportunity to appeal the ban. If successful, their channel returns as if nothing had happened. After a year, creators will now have the option of a “second chance”.

“We know that many laid-off creators deserve a second chance,” the blog reads, noting that YouTube itself doesn’t always get it right the first time. The option to get a new channel will appear in YouTube Studio on desktop, and Google plans to start sending these notices in the coming months. However, anyone fired for copyright infringement is out of luck: Google doesn’t forgive such infringement as easily as it claims COVID is a hoax.

The readmission process will still be accompanied by a review by YouTube staff, and the company says it will consider several factors, including whether the behavior that led to the channel’s ban 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 such as the severity or persistence of violations and whether the creator’s actions “have harmed or could continue to harm the YouTube community.”