As the single biggest search engine where you can upload and watch videos, YouTube needs to take advantage of the massive number of users it has by ensuring that all of them would have a fairly safe environment in which they would be able to take advantage of the kind of content they are looking into at this point in time. The fact of the matter is that a lot of people might want to use YouTube to disseminate content that is harmful, hateful or otherwise inappropriate for average audiences.
Over 8.7 million videos have been removed between July and September 2019, indicating that YouTube is definitely doing its job as far as making sure that users have a safe environment is concerned. Over 8.1 million videos were removed through automated flagging, indicating that YouTube’s algorithms are doing the bulk of the heavy lifting.
Nearly 350,000 videos were removed after having been reported by users, indicating that YouTube users are also playing an important role in ensuring that YouTube remains a wholesome and safe space all in all. The rest of the categories in this regard are interesting. While government agencies and NGOs are only responsible for a few thousands of removals that occurred during this time period, YouTube has what it calls its Individual Trusted Flagger (ITF) program which includes agencies that YouTube has found to be particularly effective at finding content that should be removed, and this ITF category is responsible for over 253,000 removals.
It’s also important to note that about two thirds of all of the videos that were removed ended up being removed before they got a single view, which is good because of the fact that most of the time these videos are going to be the kinds of content that most people would not want to see because it might just end up causing you some kind of distress all in all.
However, 32% of these videos were removed after having received views, thereby showing that there is still some improvement to be seen in this regard, improvement that would definitely enable YouTube to become an even better place for people to look for the right kinds of content all in all.
About 54% (4,770,934) videos were removed, were flagged for being spam, scam or misleading in some way. Similarly, 91 percent (3,020,700) channels were terminated for spreading misleading, scam or spammy content. This is important to note because of the fact that places like YouTube are often used to distribute a great amount of misinformation, and as a result of this fact it is important that YouTube is taking steps to try and curb the level of information that ends up getting disseminated using the platform all in all.
Google's updated transparency report also highlights that in 2019 (from July to September) a massive 516,887,894 comments were removed for violating YouTube's Community Guidelines.
All in all, these steps that YouTube is taking are a heartening example of what makes the platform so great.
Read next: YouTube CEO Urges Content Creators to Take Breaks
Over 8.7 million videos have been removed between July and September 2019, indicating that YouTube is definitely doing its job as far as making sure that users have a safe environment is concerned. Over 8.1 million videos were removed through automated flagging, indicating that YouTube’s algorithms are doing the bulk of the heavy lifting.
Nearly 350,000 videos were removed after having been reported by users, indicating that YouTube users are also playing an important role in ensuring that YouTube remains a wholesome and safe space all in all. The rest of the categories in this regard are interesting. While government agencies and NGOs are only responsible for a few thousands of removals that occurred during this time period, YouTube has what it calls its Individual Trusted Flagger (ITF) program which includes agencies that YouTube has found to be particularly effective at finding content that should be removed, and this ITF category is responsible for over 253,000 removals.
It’s also important to note that about two thirds of all of the videos that were removed ended up being removed before they got a single view, which is good because of the fact that most of the time these videos are going to be the kinds of content that most people would not want to see because it might just end up causing you some kind of distress all in all.
However, 32% of these videos were removed after having received views, thereby showing that there is still some improvement to be seen in this regard, improvement that would definitely enable YouTube to become an even better place for people to look for the right kinds of content all in all.
About 54% (4,770,934) videos were removed, were flagged for being spam, scam or misleading in some way. Similarly, 91 percent (3,020,700) channels were terminated for spreading misleading, scam or spammy content. This is important to note because of the fact that places like YouTube are often used to distribute a great amount of misinformation, and as a result of this fact it is important that YouTube is taking steps to try and curb the level of information that ends up getting disseminated using the platform all in all.
Google's updated transparency report also highlights that in 2019 (from July to September) a massive 516,887,894 comments were removed for violating YouTube's Community Guidelines.
"YouTube is a vibrant community in which millions of people post billions of comments each quarter. Using a combination of people and technology, we remove comments that violate our Community Guidelines.", explained Google Transparency Report.Another really important area that should be talked about and focused on is YouTube’s policy regarding videos that endanger the wellbeing of children. YouTube has removed about 851,000 videos in this category. Many of these videos claim to be about a variety of topics but often incorporate promotion of pedophilia, or in certain instances even depict pedophilia which is something that often gets automatically flagged which is a good sign because seeing something like that would be immensely traumatic for any normal human being.
All in all, these steps that YouTube is taking are a heartening example of what makes the platform so great.
Read next: YouTube CEO Urges Content Creators to Take Breaks
