YouTube is reducing the reach of Shorts that merely repost clips from other creators' videos. The change doesn't ban the practice outright, but it strongly incentivizes creators to add original commentary, edits, or transformations to borrowed content.
The policy aims to reward genuine creative work while discouraging low-effort compilation and reposting. However, it remains unclear whether the update will affect clips that original creators themselves repurpose from their longer videos to drive traffic to full-length content—a common promotional strategy on the platform.