YouTube Community Guidelines: Warnings, Strikes and Appeals

YouTube's Community Guidelines are the platform's basic rules of conduct, and they apply to all content: videos (including unlisted and private ones), comments, links, posts and thumbnails. If you breach them, the usual outcome the first time is a warning; after that come strikes, and three strikes within the same 90-day period can mean the permanent removal of the channel.

What they are and what they cover

They are YouTube's code of conduct, and the official Community Guidelines page groups them into five blocks, each with its specific policies:

• Spam and deceptive practices. Content intended to scam, mislead, spam or deceive other users is not allowed. This is where the policies on impersonation, external links and fake engagement sit, among others.
• Sensitive content. Nudity and sexual content, child safety, suicide and self-harm, thumbnails and vulgar language.
• Violent or dangerous content. Hate speech, harassment and cyberbullying, violent or graphic content, violent criminal organisations and harmful or dangerous content.
• Regulated goods. The sale of certain products is not allowed, and there is a specific policy on firearms.
• Misinformation. Certain types of false or misleading content that pose a high risk of serious harm, such as content that promotes harmful remedies or treatments, includes certain technically manipulated material or interferes with democratic processes.

There is one exception that matters to educational channels: content that would normally breach the Guidelines may be allowed if it has an educational, documentary, scientific or artistic context, which YouTube calls EDSA. But the page itself makes clear this does not mean you can breach the Guidelines. If your channel deals with sensitive subjects, such as wars, health or crime, that context should be clear in the video.

The warning and the policy training

A first violation usually carries only a warning, because YouTube assumes mistakes can be made without any intention of breaching its policies. For it to expire, you can complete an optional policy training: a short educational experience, inside the platform, about the specific policy you breached. You can access it from the YouTube app and from YouTube Studio, for example on the dashboard or on the Content tab, and also from the link in the email and the notifications.

What is worth knowing about that training:

• If you complete it, the warning expires after 90 days, and the period starts when you finish the training, not when the warning is issued.
• If your content breaches the same policy again within that period, the warning may not expire and your channel may receive a strike.
• If you breach a different policy after completing the training, you will receive another warning.
• Not all warnings can be remedied with training, and YouTube may prevent repeat offenders from taking training in the future.

And an exception to all of the above: sometimes a single serious violation causes the channel to be terminated with no prior warning.

First, second and third strike

If this is the second time YouTube detects that your content breaches its policies, there is no longer a warning: you receive a strike. This is how they escalate, according to YouTube's help page on strikes:

Situation	What happens
First strike	For 1 week you cannot upload videos or stream live, schedule videos to go public, create premieres, create custom thumbnails or posts, or create or edit playlists, among other things. After the week, privileges are restored automatically, but the strike stays on the channel for 90 days.
Second strike within 90 days	You cannot post content for 2 weeks.
Third strike within the same 90-day period	YouTube could permanently remove the channel.

No strike expires until 90 days after it was applied, and strikes do not disappear by deleting the content in question. While the penalty lasts, any public content you have scheduled becomes private and you will have to schedule it again. In addition, a strike can make you lose access to advanced features. And if YouTube restricts your channel, you cannot use, create or acquire another channel to get around that measure: doing so could end with all your channels being terminated.

How to appeal a warning or a strike

If you think it is a mistake, you can appeal. Warnings and strikes can only be appealed within 6 months of being issued; for the removal of content, the deadline is 1 year from when it was removed. To appeal a strike:

1. Go to the YouTube Studio dashboard.
2. Select the “Channel violations” card.
3. Select “Appeal”.

To appeal the removal of a video, go to Content, hover over the video's notice, click the link, give the reason and send it. Two things that cannot be undone: you can only appeal each strike once, and if you delete the video the strike remains and you will no longer be able to appeal it.

YouTube replies by email with one of these outcomes. If the video did not breach the Guidelines, it restores it and removes the strike. If it did not breach them but may be inappropriate for some users, it applies an age restriction. And if it did breach them, it keeps the strike. When an appeal is rejected, no additional penalty is applied.

Guidelines, copyright, monetisation and AI

The Community Guidelines coexist with other policies that work separately:

• Copyright. Copyright strikes are different from strikes for breaching the Community Guidelines and follow their own system; we explain it in copyright on YouTube.
• Monetisation. Content that breaches the Community Guidelines cannot be monetised and is removed from the platform, and to join the YouTube Partner Program you cannot have any active strike for breaching them. The rest of what YouTube asks of a channel made with AI is in how to monetise a YouTube channel with AI.
• Content made with AI. YouTube applies the Community Guidelines to all its content, including content generated or altered with AI. Separately, the use of AI has to be disclosed when the content is realistic or has been significantly modified; when and how is covered in altered or synthetic content on YouTube.

What the Estudio de Canales does (and does not do)

The Estudio de Canales does not check your videos against the Community Guidelines or see your warnings or strikes: YouTube decides and shows that. What it does is put some safeguards in place before the video exists:

• Fixed instructions to the AI. When preparing the research, the brief, the outline and the script, the AI receives rules that are not negotiable: original content with value of its own, no impersonating real people, no medical, legal or financial advice given as if by a professional, and no inventing data, figures, quotes or sources.
• Your own red lines. In the channel bible you can list banned topics and things the channel must never say. If they appear in the script, the studio warns you without blocking, because it may be a quote or a legitimate context.
• Images without recognisable real people. The storyboard asks for visuals without brands, without recognisable real people or celebrities and without logos.
• A person approves. The script, the preview and the master need a person's approval.
• The AI disclosure, prepared. If the video includes AI-generated assets, the synthetic content declaration comes ticked; if you untick it, the studio reminds you that YouTube requires disclosure when the content is realistic.

Final responsibility lies with whoever publishes. The studio does not upload anything on its own: you are the one who uploads the package in YouTube Studio, and it is your channel that answers to the Guidelines.

Sources consulted

Checked on 11 October 2026. We link to the original source so that you can consult the current text.

• Introducción a las faltas por incumplimiento de las Normas de la Comunidad en YouTube. Google · Ayuda de YouTube.
• Normas de la Comunidad de YouTube. Google · Ayuda de YouTube.
• Apelar una falta por incumplimiento de las Normas de la Comunidad o la retirada de un vídeo. Google · Ayuda de YouTube.
• Información sobre las faltas por infracción de derechos de autor. Google · Ayuda de YouTube.
• Políticas de monetización de canales de YouTube. Google · Ayuda de YouTube.
• Programa para Partners de YouTube: información general y requisitos. Google · Ayuda de YouTube.
• Divulgar el uso de contenido alterado o sintético. Google · Ayuda de YouTube.