After video platform YouTube began barring Logan Paul from serving ads on his video channel, they have now announced a more formal and wider set of sanctions it’s prepared to level on any creator that starts to post videos that are harmful to viewers, others in the YouTube community, or advertisers.

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As it has done with Paul, on two occasions now, the site said it will remove monetization options on the videos- specifically access to advertising programs. But on top of that, it’s added in a twist that will be particularly impactful given that a lot of a video’s popularity rests on it being discoverable.

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In a blog post, Ariel Bardin, Vice President of Product Management at YouTube wrote, “We may remove a channel’s eligibility to be recommended on YouTube, such as appearing on our home page, trending tab or watch next,”

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The full list of steps, as outlined by YouTube include three new ways the website plans to discourage, and limit the viewership of such offending channels.  The first step would be to place “Premium Monetization Programs”, where the host is able to remove a channel from Google Preferred and also suspend, cancel or remove the creators YouTube Red partnerships. Next, the host may suspend  a channel’s ability to serve ads, ability to earn revenue and potentially remove a channel from the YouTube Partner Program, including creator support and access to worldwide YouTube Spaces. Lastly, the host is able to remove a channel’s eligibility to be recommended on YouTube, such as appearing on their homepage, trending tab or watch next. Essentially, these three steps could completely obliterate any sponsorships, revenue or fame contributors have depended on to build their careers through this platform.

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Some may be wondering how this giant corporation plans on keeping track of what is being posted, and it seems the site has turned a new leaf. They will be using a large team of human curators and AI to track the content of what’s being posted, and in cases where videos fall afoul of YouTube’s advertising guidelines, or pose a threat to its wider community, they have a much bigger chance of falling afoul of YouTube’s rules and getting dinged.

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The moves come at a time when the site is making a much more concerted effort to raise the overall quality of what is posted, shared and viewed by millions of people every day, after repeated accusations that it has facilitated a range of bad actors, from people peddling propaganda to influence elections, to those who are posting harmful content aimed at children, to simply allowing cruel, tasteless and unusual videos to get posted in the name of comedy.

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The issue seemed to reach a head with Paul, who posted a video in Japan in January that featured a suicide victim, and has since followed up with more questionable content presented as innocuous fun- including his most recent where he uses a taser on already dead rats.

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Even though Paul makes hundreds of thousands of dollars from ads (the exact amount is unknown and has only been estimated by different analytics companies) removing ads was only a partial sanction, since Paul monetizes in other ways, including merchandising. So it’s interesting to see YouTube adding more details and ways of sanctioning creators, that will hit at their very virality.

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As in the case of Paul, YouTube stresses that the majority of creators on its platform will not be impacted by today’s announcement because their content is not on the wrong side of acceptable. These sorts of sanctions, it said, will be applied as a last resort and will often not be permanent, but will last until the creator removes or alters content. It will be worth watching how and if this impacts video content overall on the platform.