Keeping creators, viewers, and partners safe is a top priority. Everyone using the platform plays a role in maintaining a secure and respectful community. Be sure to review the Community Guidelines carefully to understand how they help protect the platform and its users. You can also visit the guidelines page for a complete overview of all policies.
Content or channels created to imitate another person or channel are not permitted on YouTube. Trademark protections are also enforced. If a channel or its content misleads viewers about the source of products, services, or identity, it may be removed or restricted.
If you come across content that appears to violate this policy, you can report it.
If you believe your channel, or another creator’s channel, is being copied or impersonated, you may submit an impersonation report.
What This Means for Creators
If you upload content, avoid posting anything that falls into the categories below:
- Channel impersonation: Creating a channel that copies another channel’s appearance, branding, profile image, layout, or overall presentation in a way that could confuse viewers into thinking it belongs to someone else. Exact duplication is not required if the intention to imitate is obvious.
- Personal impersonation: Uploading content or creating accounts designed to appear as though another person is the one posting it.
If you run a fan account or tribute channel, make that clear in both your channel name and handle so viewers can easily recognize that it is unofficial and not operated by the original creator, artist, or organization.
Examples of Violations
The following are examples of content that may violate this policy:
- Channels using nearly identical names, handles, or profile images as another channel, with only small changes such as added spaces or replacing letters with numbers.
- Using another person’s name, username, logo, photo, or branding to mislead users into believing you are affiliated with them.
- Creating a channel with someone else’s identity and pretending that person is uploading the content.
- Posting comments while pretending to be another individual or creator.
- Fan channels that only mention they are unofficial in the description, while still presenting themselves as the original creator through the channel name or branding.
- Channels pretending to represent an existing news organization or media outlet.
These examples are not exhaustive. If content could reasonably confuse viewers into believing it belongs to someone else, it may violate the impersonation policy.
