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YOUTube bans firearms videos

9K views 117 replies 44 participants last post by  freefall 
#1 ·
Well, that was just a matter of time....

YouTube, a popular media site for firearms enthusiasts, this week quietly introduced tighter restrictions on videos involving weapons, becoming the latest battleground in the U.S. gun-control debate.



YouTube will ban videos that promote or link to websites selling firearms and accessories, including bump stocks, which allow a semi-automatic rifle to fire faster. Additionally, YouTube said it will prohibit videos with instructions on how to assemble firearms. The video site, owned by Alphabet Inc.’s Google, has faced intense criticism for hosting videos about guns, bombs and other deadly weapons.



For many gun-rights supporters, YouTube has been a haven. A current search on the site for “how to build a gun” yields 25 million results, though that includes items such as toys. At least one producer of gun videos saw its page suspended on Tuesday. Another channel opted to move its videos to an adult-content site, saying that will offer more freedom than YouTube.



“We routinely make updates and adjustments to our enforcement guidelines across all of our policies,” a YouTube spokeswoman said in a statement. “While we’ve long prohibited the sale of firearms, we recently notified creators of updates we will be making around content promoting the sale or manufacture of firearms and their accessories.”



YouTube has placed greater restrictions on content several times in the past year, responding to a series of issues with inappropriate and offensive videos. Most of those changes involved pulling ads from categories of videos. Google is more reluctant to remove entire videos from YouTube, but has been willing to do so with terrorism-related content.

The firearms decision comes days before Saturday’s March For Our Lives, a rally organized by survivors of the Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 dead.

See also: QuickTake on the gun-control debate

The new YouTube policies will be enforced starting in April,

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...rm-sales-and-how-to-videos-prompting-backlash
 
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#2 ·
well, that is their right to do so, but, i'm sure the backlash is going to be someone else picking up the slack and opening a new media service that will sponsor and support such gun related videos.

pun intended, they just shot themselves in the foot!
 
#9 ·
Corporations make decisions based on the bottom line. Apparently they think that they will do better with the masses with this decision.
 
#21 ·
Wrong! That may have been the case when we were young:D, but not now. Ideology as been proven to be a prime motivator by most of those in the 'media' and this is just another example of them 'controlling the narrative'. I would expect you to make excises for them! ;)
 
#17 ·
Our only Government must get involved and stop the censoring, of everything not Liberal. They constitute an arm a branch of the press and as such should conform, imo, to serving in the public interest, and may not stifle or stop free speech.
Lots of People are leaving Facebook and Twitter over using our persona information and for censorship. Any other platforms that come along will eat their lunch.
Zukerberg is going to testify under oath to Congress because of privacy and censorship.
You can bet,imo, that Boomber's millions are involved.
 
#23 ·
YouTube is taking a big risk by censoring content. The company has been protected from copyright infringement, defamation, libel, hate speech, and other suits by claiming the sight only hosts videos uploaded by members, placing the burden of responsibility on individual members. Actively patrolling the content will place responsibility on the owners.
 
#25 ·
I seriously doubt gun rights activists will make a serious dent in YouTube's bottom line. As far as trying to claim that YouTube is infringing on your right to free speech, they're not. YouTube is not a government entity, nor are they actively preventing you from posting gun related videos on the internet. Just disallowing it on their own website.
 
#28 ·
Just to emphasize my feelings about the left and the agenda driven YouTube decision I thought I would do a bit of research. Just before I made this comment I visited YouTube.....
where I saw several videos of both how to make a crock pot bomb and a pipe bomb.
Once again the left pushes it's anti-second amendment agenda while pretending to care about society. The truth is they couldn't care less about anything but votes.
We need to be thankful we have a conservative president right now. Whether you like him or not, just remember what the alternative was.
 
#29 · (Edited)
Patreon is headquartered in San Francisco so I doubt there will be much support for firearms.
Patreon has changed its service fees and may be losing a lot of patrons. They are now charging 2.9% + 35 cents per pledge. While that may not sound like much most patrons pay a small monthly amount to many posters. As little as $1. That will make a $1 donation cost $1.38. A $10 donation would cost $10.64 which does not sound bad but most donations are not that high. Average donor gives $12 a month split up among several posters or artists. If you were donating $12 per month split between 6 artists it would cost you $13.46. Split that between 12 artists and it would cost you $16.56. Patrons will opt to cut off some artists and increase the amount to fewer artists.
 
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#36 ·
The famous content creators like Hickok45, Demo Ranch etc. are facing demonetisation and switching to Patreon, full30 etc. The Ad policy of YT is crazy at the moment, really if you dwelled into the topic they are monetising ridiculous content and as usual pay little attention to context.
I think the corporation will keep firearm related vids as YT became the 2nd most used web search tool, 1st being Google. Cutting them off would mean decreased traffic and less advertiser interest.
So to sum it up, just support your fav gun nut on Patreon, Full30 or buy their merchandise, use their affiliate links etc. etc.
:cool:
 
#37 ·
well to be honest, i'm just not going to go into high stress mode over it. i still use YouTube to watch music videos and more than likely will continue to do so. plus, as long as they are carrying my favorite show, RoadKill, i'll probably cut them some slack! :)

whatever others do is purely their option and choice to make.
 
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