YouTube is facing criticism as disgruntled users accuse the video-sharing site of removing restricted content from search results by automatically toggling on ‘restricted mode.’
YouTube has made a bevy of controversial changes to its platform over the last year. In August, it implemented an AI-powered age-verification system to a small group of users, and later faced backlash for running an experiment that used AI to ‘edit’ YouTube Shorts without notifying creators beforehand.
In September, the site is once again facing criticism for another big change it has seemingly made to its search results. At the beginning of the month, users began sounding off that their content wasn’t showing up when they searched for it, sending their views plummeting.
After doing some sleuthing, they discovered that YouTube was automatically turning on ‘restricted mode’ for many users, which filters out any content that gets flagged as potentially sensitive.
YouTube is facing accusations of automatically turning on ‘restricted mode’ for users across its platform.
‘Sensitive’ content can contain explicit language, violence, or suggestive themes. YouTube utilizes a mixture of human reviewers and automated systems to determine what videos are marked as ‘sensitive’ in nature.
Of course, this could apply to a hefty chunk of content on the platform — most of the top YouTubers play games or react to videos that have cursing or mature themes, after all.
YouTube users sound off over alleged auto-restricted mode
Viewers and creators alike took to the internet to sound off that ‘restricted mode’ had been automatically turned on for them, saying they had to manually go to their channel settings to disable it.
Partnered Twitch streamer Azer Dugalic went viral for sharing his discovery of the issue on X, writing in a post on September 5, “We took a big hit in ad revenue, sponsorship potential revenue and mental. Make sure your favorite creators know why this is happening so they don’t lose their heads.”
The next day, however, Team YouTube published a response to a different user who urged viewers to toggle off restricted mode in their settings, accusing the platform of “using AI to limit the videos you see.”
“Few things – Restricted Mode is OFF by default, totally optional, most don’t use it (think libraries, schools, etc. that do). It’s been around since 2010, it’s not new,” they replied.
“It’s good feedback that Studio dashboard doesn’t include Restricted Mode,” they continued in another comment. “We’ve shared with our product teams. For it being auto turned on, we’ve seen no evidence of this and people on X are largely confirming it’s OFF for them, but can of course look into reports saying otherwise.”
These concerns haven’t died down, though. Three days later, the platform is still coming under fire as users on X added a now-deleted Community Note to a YouTube Creators post saying that “your hard work doesn’t go unnoticed.”
While YouTube itself continues to maintain that restricted mode is off by default for most users, many viewers are saying otherwise. It’s worth noting that when I went to my settings to check, restricted mode was off on all of my YouTube accounts — but it’s worth double-checking to make sure you’re not missing out on content you’d like to see, just in case.
