Safety and enforcement
Penalties and appeals
How we respond to breaches, strikes and how to appeal.
We look at how serious the breach is, whether it was a mistake, and your history. This table is a guide, and we can go further if a case calls for it.
| Severity | Examples | Usual result |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | Child sexual content, sexual deepfakes of real people | Immediate removal, account closed, earnings withheld, reported where the law requires. No appeal restores the content. |
| High | Pornography, deceptive deepfakes, fraud, faking views or unlocks | Removal, with features limited or the account closed. Related earnings withheld. |
| Medium | Infringement, unlicensed likeness, hate, harassment | Content removed. Repeat cases lead to account closure. |
| Low | Misleading thumbnails, wrong genres, duplicates | Content removed or a request to fix it. |
Strikes
- We can give your account a strike when you break these rules, usually along with removing the content.
- We’ll tell you the reason in Messages.
- Strikes don’t expire on their own. We remove one if your appeal succeeds.
- Three active strikes can lead to your account being limited or closed. Critical breaches don’t need three.
Messages from us
We may message you about your account or content in Messages, and you can reply there. Check it regularly, because we don’t currently send these by email.
Appeals
Where we can, we’ll tell you why we acted. If you think we got it wrong, send us a message in Messages and include any proof you have.