Platform policy timeline
When each platform changed the rules that decide whether your content gets distributed, monetized, or quietly buried. Every entry links to the platform's own policy page.
21 further tracked rules have no published commencement date and are listed on the platform pages instead. We do not date entries the platform never dated.
2026
- Verified against source
Public views count from the first frame as of Aug 24, 2026
From August 24, 2026 YouTube counts a public view the moment a video starts playing, across Shorts, long-form video, and live streams. The retention-based figure survives only on Shorts: "engaged views" counts viewers who stayed past the initial seconds, excluding loops, and applies to Shorts only - for long-form videos and live streams engaged views simply equal views. The change does not affect Partner Program earnings or eligibility; YPP earnings still run on engaged Shorts views and engaged watch hours.
support.google.com - Verified against source
Data API default: 100 uploads/day per project
The default YouTube Data API allocation is now 100 videos.insert calls/day (a dedicated bucket, 1 unit each), 100 search.list calls/day, and 10,000 units/day for everything else. This replaced the old single 10,000-unit pool where an upload cost 1,600 units (about 6 uploads/day); the transition ran from Dec 2025 to June 1, 2026. Extendable via the quota extension form.
developers.google.com - Verified against source
API is metered spend with a hard stop
The X API is prepaid-credit, pay-per-usage: you buy credits up front and they are deducted as you call the API. Pay-per-usage plans are capped at 3 million Post READS per month - a retrieval cap, not a posting cap. No per-tier write caps are published. When the prepaid balance runs out, API requests fail until more credits are bought.
docs.x.com
2025
- Verified against source
Realistic AI content must carry the AIGC label
AI-generated or significantly edited content showing realistic-looking people or scenes must be labeled - via the AIGC label or the creator's own clear caption, sticker, or watermark. AI-generated audio mimicking a real person's voice explicitly requires disclosure. Unlabeled realistic AI content may be removed, restricted, or labeled by TikTok depending on potential harm.
tiktok.com - Verified against source
Unoriginal content is For You feed INELIGIBLE
Reused or unoriginal content posted without creative edits is ineligible for the For You feed; clips that show someone else's watermark or logo are the named example. The consequence is distribution suppression (FYF ineligibility), not removal. Current guidelines effective Sept 13, 2025, with stricter unoriginal-content enforcement announced from Sept 15, 2025.
tiktok.com - Verified against source
Repetitive automated content is spam
Automation designed to bypass TikTok's systems is prohibited, and using automation to run many accounts or send repetitive content is classified as spam, with penalties up to content removal and account bans. Posting through approved Content Posting API clients is sanctioned - the repetitive-content clause applies regardless of channel.
tiktok.com - Verified against source
YPP inauthentic-content rule (renamed July 15, 2025)
The YouTube Partner Program requires original, authentic content; mass-produced or repetitive content is ineligible for monetization regardless of how it was made, including with AI. Recovery requires "significant original commentary, substantive modifications, or educational or entertainment value" - the substance of each video must be materially varied. Not allowed: characters put in the same situation repeatedly, image slideshows with minimal narrative, and "AI-generated content made with generic or unoriginal templates". The policy was renamed from "repetitious content" to "inauthentic content" on July 15, 2025. A July 16, 2026 clarification named three ineligible categories: repetitive AI-generated video, distressing or emotionally manipulative clips, and synthetic AI personas delivering advice on sensitive topics such as health, medicine, personal finance, law, or politics. Using AI does not by itself affect eligibility.
support.google.com - Verified against source
Account-level penalty for reusing others' content
Facebook's July 14, 2025 unoriginal-content policy applies penalties at the account level: accounts that repeatedly reuse someone else's videos, photos, or text "will not only lose access to Facebook monetization programs for a period of time, but will also receive reduced distribution on everything they share". Approved source material may be used only if you "make it your own through creative editing, voiceover or commentary"; "simply stitching together clips or adding your watermark does not qualify as meaningful enhancement". Detected duplicate videos have their distribution reduced, and Meta is testing links from duplicates back to the original.
creators.facebook.com
2024
- Verified against source
Meta auto-labels detected AI content
Meta labels AI-generated content across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. The label was introduced as "Made with AI" and renamed "AI info" on July 1, 2024; organic AI content labelling began in May 2024. Labels are driven by industry-standard AI indicators embedded in the file (C2PA and IPTC metadata) and by creator self-disclosure, not by a general-purpose detector. Meta's own generator adds "Imagined with AI" to photorealistic images it produces.
about.fb.com - Verified against source
Meta auto-labels detected AI content
Meta labels AI-generated content across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. The label was introduced as "Made with AI" and renamed "AI info" on July 1, 2024; organic AI content labelling began in May 2024. Labels are driven by industry-standard AI indicators embedded in the file (C2PA and IPTC metadata) and by creator self-disclosure, not by a general-purpose detector. Meta's own generator adds "Imagined with AI" to photorealistic images it produces.
about.fb.com
2023
- Verified against source
Rate limits far above posting cadence
Writes are limited per account via a points system: 5,000 points/hour and 35,000/day, with CREATE=3, UPDATE=2, DELETE=1 - at most 1,666 record creations per hour and 11,666 per day. Unchanged since Aug 2023. The least constrained platform in the stack.
raw.githubusercontent.com - Verified against source
Watermarked and recycled reels are made less visible
Instagram names the specific reel attributes it demotes: "We aim to make certain reels less visible for other reasons, such as low-resolution or watermarked reels, reels that are muted or contain borders, reels that are majority text, or reels that have already been posted on Instagram." It also confirms the demotion is often invisible to the creator, noting it is "experimenting with new notifications to help creators understand when the reach of their reel may be limited due to a watermark". This is the closest Instagram equivalent to TikTok's For You feed ineligibility for unoriginal content, and it catches the same cross-posting workflow: the easiest file to re-upload is usually the one with another platform's watermark burned into it.
about.instagram.com - Verified against source
Not recommended is not removed
Instagram states that "Posts that go against our Recommendation Guidelines are allowed on Instagram", and that "If someone's post goes against our Recommendation Guidelines, we try to avoid showing that post where we recommend content." The post stays up and continues to reach the accounts that follow you - Feed is described as "a mix of content from the accounts you've chosen to follow, recommended content from accounts we think you'll enjoy" - while being withheld from the recommendation surfaces where non-followers discover content: Explore, Reels, Feed Recommendations, Search and Suggested Accounts. There is no notification when this happens, which is why creators experience it as a secret penalty rather than a published rule.
about.instagram.com
2021
- Verified against source
Account Status tells you if you are recommendable
Instagram exposes recommendation eligibility directly to professional accounts through Account Status, reached by "tapping into Settings, tapping Account, and then tapping Account Status". It shows whether an account's content "may be eligible to be recommended to non-followers in places like Explore, Reels and Feed Recommendations", and separately whether the account itself is eligible to be recommended "in places like Search or Suggested Accounts". Decisions can be contested: "If you think we've made a mistake, you'll also be able to appeal by hitting 'Request a Review' directly from your Account Status."
about.instagram.com
Recently revised entries
Edits we made to our own record, newest first: updates after a source page changed, and our own corrections and re-sourcing. These are changes to this record, not necessarily to the platform's policy.
- — YouTube ypp_status_in_studio: guidance updated
- — Threads posts_250_per_24h: summary updated
- — Threads posts_250_per_24h: guidance updated
- — Threads posts_250_per_24h: status updated
How this is maintained
Each rule is tied to the platform's own published policy or developer documentation. A job re-fetches every source page weekly and checks that the specific sentences the claim rests on are still on the page — not that the page is byte-identical, which would fire every time a help centre edited its footer.
When a quoted sentence disappears, that rule is flagged and shows an awaiting re-verification status until a person re-reads the source and confirms what changed. Where a platform states a figure we cannot find at the cited URL, the rule stays flagged rather than being quietly softened to something we can verify.
This page is free to cite. Every entry links to the primary source so you can check it yourself.
Questions
How is this timeline compiled?
Each entry is a rule in a knowledge base that links to the platform's own published policy or developer documentation. The date shown is the commencement date the platform published for that policy. Rules whose commencement date the platform never published are not listed here, because a guessed date would make the timeline unreliable.
How do you know the rules are still current?
An automated job re-fetches every source page weekly and checks that the specific sentences each claim rests on are still present on the page. If a quoted sentence disappears, that rule is flagged for review and shows an awaiting re-verification status until a person re-reads the source.
Can I cite or link to this page?
Yes. The timeline is free to cite and every entry links to the platform's primary source so readers can verify it independently. If you are quoting a specific rule, link to that platform's page on this site so the citation stays accurate as the policy changes.
Why do some entries have no date?
Platforms often revise a help-centre page without publishing a commencement date. Those rules are still tracked and still verified weekly, but they are shown on the platform pages rather than on this timeline, because placing them on a dated axis would mean inventing a date.
Rules by platform
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