- YouTube Vice President of Global Head of Trust & Safety Matt Halprin announced the video-sharing company is taking a tougher stance on harassment
YouTube Vice President of Global Head of Trust & Safety Matt Halprin has announced that it is taking a tougher stance on harassment to prevent hate speech and threats. Now YouTube no longer allows content that maliciously insults people based on their race, gender identity, or sexual orientation. And YouTube is also going to also ban veiled or implied threats.
“Harassment hurts our community by making people less inclined to share their opinions and engage with each other. We heard this time and again from creators, including those who met with us during the development of this policy update. We also met with a number of experts who shared their perspective and informed our process, from organizations that study online bullying or advocate on behalf of journalists, to free speech proponents and policy organizations from all sides of the political spectrum,” wrote Halprin.
And users could also see penalties if violence is simulated towards someone or the user suggests that violence could take place.
The YouTube channels that routinely brush up against the policy would also be removed from the YouTube Partner Program. And the channel owner that tests the limits of YouTube could be demonetized and/or banned.
YouTube is also nearly finished with a feature that enables channel operators to review comments before they become public. This feature has already been enabled for larger channels.
“All of these updates represent another step towards making sure we protect the YouTube community. We expect there will continue to be healthy debates over some of the decisions and we have an appeals process in place if creators believe we’ve made the wrong call on a video,” Halprin added. “As we make these changes, it’s vitally important that YouTube remain a place where people can express a broad range of ideas, and we’ll continue to protect discussion on matters of public interest and artistic expression. We also believe these discussions can be had in ways that invite participation, and never make someone fear for their safety. We’re committed to continue revisiting our policies regularly to ensure that they are preserving the magic of YouTube, while also living up to the expectations of our community.”
