YouTube expands hate, harassment policies to curb harmful conspiracies

The latest decision builds on YouTube's efforts to strengthen and evolve its policies and enforcement work which is organized around four pillars - removing violative content, reducing the spread of harmful misinformation, raising authoritative voices, and rewarding trusted creator

YouTube is expanding both its hate and harassment policies to prohibit content that targets an individual or group with conspiracy theories that have been used to justify real-world violence such as QAnon, the Google-owned online video-sharing platform said on Thursday.

"Managing misinformation and harmful conspiracy theories is challenging because the content is always shifting and evolving. To address this kind of content effectively, it's critical that our teams continually review and update our policies and systems to reflect the frequent changes," YouTube wrote in a blog post.

Content threatening or harassing someone by suggesting they are complicit in harmful conspiracies like QAnon or Pizzagate will be prohibited on the platform. However, news coverage on these issues or content discussing them without targeting individuals or protected groups may stay up.

According to YouTube, views coming from non-subscribed recommendations to prominent Q-related channels dropped by over 80 percent since January 2019 when the platform updated its recommendations system. In addition, the platform has removed tens of thousands of QAnon-videos and terminated hundreds of channels under its existing policies, especially those explicitly threatening violence or denying the existence of major violent events.

The latest decision builds on YouTube's efforts to strengthen and evolve its policies and enforcement work which is organized around four pillars - removing violative content, reducing the spread of harmful misinformation, raising authoritative voices, and rewarding trusted creators.

YouTube said it will continue to adapt its policies to stay current. It has begun enforcing the updated hate and harassment policies and will ramp up in the upcoming weeks.

"Due to the evolving nature and shifting tactics of groups promoting these conspiracy theories, we'll continue to adapt our policies to stay current and remain committed to taking the steps needed to live up to this responsibility," YouTube further wrote in the post.