Skip to main content

YouTube will penalize extremist videos that don’t qualify for removal

youtube extremist videos penalized ios
Image used with permission by copyright holder
About 75 percent of YouTube extremist videos are now removed by artificial intelligence program before ever seeing a human flag — but now the platform will also penalize content that falls in a gray area between what is allowed in the usage policies but still contains controversial hate speech or extremism. On Tuesday, in an update on the effort to fight terror-related content, YouTube shared progress on the platform’s current efforts as well as where it is headed next.

In July, the company introduced four new focus areas to help remove extremist content, a tall order considering YouTube has around 400 hours of video uploaded every minute. Those areas included both more software detection through AI and more human evaluators. While the change was implemented less than two months ago, the AI software has improved in both speed and efficiency, YouTube says, removing content in many cases before the video received a flag by a viewer. That same software has helped to double the number of videos removed from YouTube for extremist content.

Recommended Videos

YouTube says they are continuing to make more hires as well as refining the software.

YouTube now also has more than 15 organizations on an advisory board to help with any new policies regarding what is allowed on YouTube and what is not. That number of organizations will continue to grow, the company says.

Removing content from YouTube is often a balance between prohibiting offensive and possibly extremist content and free speech. For videos that do not violate the terms of use to warrant a removal, but still contain “controversial religious or supremacist content,” YouTube will penalize the videos by removing several features. These videos that fall into that gray area will not allow comments and likes, and they will not show up in suggested videos.

Videos that fall into that category also cannot be monetized, part of a change to the YouTube’s content guidelines announced in June. The change was, in part, prompted by several advertisers leaving the platform when their ads were placed alongside offensive content.

The changes do not just target creators of extremist videos, however — when a user searches for keywords related to those extremist videos, YouTube now instead plays a curated playlist of videos that debunk the extremist messages.

“Altogether, we have taken significant steps over the last month in our fight against online terrorism,” the official blog post reads. “But this is not the end. We know there is always more work to be done. With the help of new machine learning technology, deep partnerships, ongoing collaborations with other companies through the Global Internet Forum, and our vigilant community we are confident we can continue to make progress against this ever-changing threat.”

Hillary K. Grigonis
Hillary never planned on becoming a photographer—and then she was handed a camera at her first writing job and she's been…
Best free Christmas movies on YouTube in 2023
die hard movie why is it a christmas classic reginald veljohnson and bruce willis in

In the years before basic cable, decades before the streaming age, Christmas movies were an annual tradition on the broadcast networks. Every year, families or even solo holiday enthusiasts could take comfort in the fact that they would be able to watch some of their favorite Christmas films for free -- assuming they were home in time to watch them. In the present, free movies are becoming scarce among the streamers. But YouTube is filling that void with a plethora of free Christmas movies that you can watch at any time.

Since the holiday season is upon us, we've updated our list of the best free Christmas movies that you can find on YouTube in 2023. The selection may change between now and 2024, but like Santa, we'll be back at least once a year to make sure that everything is still here, while adding even more Christmas cheer from one of the world's biggest streaming platforms.

Read more
7 most popular YouTube music videos of 2023, ranked
Miley Cyrus walks down a road in Flowers.

The sheer volume of content uploaded to YouTube is staggering to consider, and there's no way one person could ever watch it all. Some videos, though, have emerged as the most popular on the service this year.

These may not be the year's best videos, but they were certainly the most popular. They're also all musical, and almost all are in Spanish or affiliated with Latin music. Here's a rundown of the seven most popular videos of the year.
7. Flower by Jisoo – 439 million views
JISOO - ‘꽃(FLOWER)’ M/V

Read more
7 best YouTube videos of 2023
A man comforts two other men on Saturday Night Live.

Even as apps like TikTok dominate many people's screen time, YouTube has endured as a source for whatever it is that you might be interested in watching. Sports highlights? On YouTube. Clips from late-night shows? Same. Music videos? YouTube's got 'em.

Because YouTube has such a diverse array of options, it can be hard to narrow down our list to just seven to represent the entire year. Needless to say, there are plenty of videos that could have made this list, but didn't. For our money, though, these seven are some of the best ways you could've spent your time on YouTube this year.
Rihanna's Super Bowl Halftime Show
Rihanna’s FULL Apple Music Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show

Read more