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Our Policies

YouTube’s mission is to give everyone a voice and show them the world — and openness and free expression are at the heart of this. Our platform is a place where a broad range of perspectives are encouraged, and we don’t shy away from disagreement and debate.

jump to a section How our guidelines work How we support creators Combating abuse jump to a section Our Policies How our guidelines work How we support creators Combating abuse

How Community & Ad-Friendly Guidelines work

Our policies help us maintain a responsible business that viewers, creators, and advertisers can rely on in order to continue to thrive on YouTube.

As with any system, we sometimes make mistakes. That’s why appeals are an important part of our processes. Creators are notified when their videos are removed due to policy violations or when they may be suspended from YPP, and can appeal if they disagree with our decision. Our Community Guidelines and Advertiser-Friendly Content Guidelines are what enable us to strike this balance. Community Guidelines

Content that violates our community guidelines is flagged by a mix of automated detection and human reporting — most is automatically detected — and we go to great lengths to make sure violative content isn’t widely viewed, or even viewed at all, before it’s taken down.

Exceptions can be made when content has a clear educational, documentary, scientific, or artistic (EDSA) context, including content that is in the public’s interest. Advertiser-Friendly Content Guidelines

Brands rely on us to protect their business interests when they’re advertising on YouTube.

To help support this, we have a set of Ad-Friendly guidelines creators in the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) need to follow in order to have Ads served on their channel content and earn a share of the revenue. How we support creators Since 2007, we’ve been paying eligible creators every month through our revenue-sharing model, the YouTube Partner Program. For a creator to be eligible for YPP, they must meet a higher bar for what they share on YouTube. Creators have to follow YouTube monetization policies and we review each applicant’s channel before admitting them to YPP. We also demonetize videos that violate our Advertiser Friendly Guidelines, and suspend creators from YPP for repeat offenses. With this model, creators have a long-term incentive to reinforce YouTube’s safety and follow our policies. We also provide Creators with an array of tools to manage their content & communities: Manage Experiences Channel Guidelines help creators set what kind of conversations they want to have on their channel. Creators can hold potentially inappropriate comments for review, hide certain individuals, block words, assign moderation privileges, and more. How to set channel guidelines Channel Management

We provide creators with an array of products that help them decide how to manage their channels.

How to manage posts and comments Privacy & Safety Resources

The privacy and safety of creators on YouTube is important to us, and we provide a range of tools & resources to support them.

How to use privacy and safety tools

How YouTube Partners with Industry Experts to Combat Abuse

Content that’s meant to praise, promote, or aid violent extremist or criminal organizations is not allowed on YouTube. We rely on many factors — like certain government and international organization designations — to determine what constitutes criminal or terrorist organizations.

We’re also a founding member of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT), where we work with other tech companies to keep terrorist content off the web — and provide training and other resources to smaller companies facing similar challenges. Explore more Expanding likeness detection to civic leaders and journalists New tools to protect creators and artists How we're helping creators disclose altered or synthetic content