As reported by The New York Times, YouTube is being less stringent on content moderation. In a stark strategic change, the platform is now instructing moderators to preserve videos that may well be in the public interest. This includes videos about race, gender, abortion, sexuality, elections, ideologies, movements, immigration, and censorship. Per this training material viewed by the Times, these types of videos should remain on the platform if no more than half of their content breaks its rules. Previously, this was set at a quarter.
This approach follows on from a key change the platform made prior to the 2024 US election. Under this change, the platform allowed content from political candidates to remain on the platform even if they violated its community guidelines. This is because these videos are applied to YouTube’s exemption for educational, documentary, scientific, and artistic content (EDSA).
Moreover, the platform told moderators that they should not remove videos if “freedom of expression value may outweigh harm risk.” When they come across borderline videos, YouTube says they must bring it to their manager instead of removing it.
In a statement to The Verge, YouTube spokesperson Nicole Bell said that YouTube “regularly update” its community guidelines, and assured the outlet that these aforementioned EDSA exemptions only apply to a “small fraction” of videos.
“This practice allows us to prevent, for example, an hours-long news podcast from being removed for showing one short clip of violence,” she explained. “We regularly update our guidance for these exceptions to reflect the new types of discussion and content (for example emergence of long, podcast content) that we see on the platform, and the feedback of our global creator community.”
