After announcing a seemingly straightforward update to crack down on “mass-produced” content, YouTube found itself desperately trying to calm a creator community that had apparently interpreted “minor policy update” as “career apocalypse.”

YouTube had to issue a clarification of their clarification. Your reaction videos are safe. Your cross-platform content is fine. Your AI-assisted creativity won’t get you banned. They’re literally just trying to stop people from posting the exact same slideshow 500 times with different thumbnails.

What YouTube actually said was pretty reasonable: they’re cracking down on channels that upload narrative stories with only superficial differences and slideshows with identical narration. But creators heard “mass-produced” and “repetitive” and immediately started planning their career pivots. Then again, we get it. When your monetization can vanish overnight, every policy change feels existential.

The irony here is that YouTube actively provides AI tools to creators, including autodubbing and Dreamscreen, while simultaneously having to reassure everyone that using AI won’t get them kicked out of the monetization club.

So to recap: YouTube is still fine with your reaction videos, your cross-platform posts, and your AI-assisted content. They just want you to put in a bit more effort.

You can read more here.