Amid Gun Debate, Youtube Goes Ahead And Censors Gun Videos
With mounting pressure on tech giants like Facebook and Google to limit the promotion of firearms, Youtube has announced that it will ban videos promoting videos on the sale or assembly of guns, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Alphabet’s Youtube – the world’s largest video sharing site – posted the update on its website, announcing that it would prohibit all videos linking to sites selling firearms and accessories. Videos that explain gun assembly or assembling accessories such as ‘bump-stocks’ – that allow guns to be fired rapidly – would be banned too.
Google’s new policy shift comes in the wake of yet another school shooting that took place in Parkland, Florida that left 17 dead last month. Google had started banning videos relating to bump-stock devices last year after the October shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada that left 58 attendees of a music festival dead.
We routinely make updates and adjustments to our enforcement guidelines across all of our policies. 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.A Youtube spokeswoman
The move has not gone down well with everyone however. InRange TV, a website featuring firearm-related videos on Youtube has said that the new policies are broad enough to give Youtube the power to ban whatever it doesn’t like.
Social media giant Facebook has banned buying and trading of firearms on its site, although it allows retailers to engage in commercial activity on the site.