YouTube Bans Violent Videos

YouTube has changed its community guidelines to ban violent videos from the site after criticism in both the US and UK.

In recent months YouTube has come under increasing criticism from both the US and UK for the fact that it has violent videos that have been uploaded available. But that has now changed as the Google-owned site has updated its community guidelines to prohibit videos that “directly incite violence,” the Guardian reports.

There are two big changes in the community guidelines. One states:

"Graphic or gratuitous violence is not allowed. If your video shows someone getting hurt, attacked or humiliated, don’t post it."

The other says:

"We encourage free speech and defend everyone’s right to express unpopular points of view. We do not permit hate speech (speech which attacks or demeans a group based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status and sexual orientation/gender identity)."

In a blog posting, the company explained the changes by saying "we realize it’s not always obvious where we draw the line on content that’s acceptable to upload. We’ve updated the community guidelines… included in the update are a few new things to steer clear of, like not directly inciting violence."