Certain types of misleading or deceptive content with serious risk of egregious harm are not allowed on YouTube. This includes certain types of misinformation that can cause real-world harm, certain types of technically manipulated content or content interfering with democratic processes.
If you find content that violates this policy, report it. Instructions for reporting violations of our Community Guidelines are available here. If you've found multiple videos or comments that you would like to report, you can report the channel.
What these policies mean for you
If you're posting content
Don't post content on YouTube if it fits any of the descriptions below.
- Suppression of census participation: Content aiming to mislead census participants about the time, place, means or eligibility requirements of the census, or false claims that could materially discourage census participation.
- Manipulated content: Content that has been technically manipulated or doctored in a way that misleads users (usually beyond clips taken out of context) and may pose a serious risk of egregious harm.
- Misattributed content: Content that may pose a serious risk of egregious harm by falsely claiming that old footage from a past event is from a current event.
Examples
Here are some examples of content that's not allowed on YouTube.
Suppression of census participation- Giving incorrect instructions on how to participate in the census.
- Discouraging participation in the census by falsely claiming that a respondent's immigration status will be reported to law enforcement.
- Inaccurately translated video subtitles that inflame geopolitical tensions, creating serious risk of egregious harm.
- Videos that have been technically manipulated (usually beyond clips taken out of context) to make it appear that a government official is dead.
- Video content that has been technically manipulated (usually beyond clips taken out of context) to fabricate events where there is a serious risk of egregious harm.
- Content inaccurately presented as documenting human rights abuses in a specific location that is actually content from another location or event.
- Content showing a military crackdown on protesters with false claims that the content is from a current event, when the footage is actually several years old.
Remember that these are just some examples. Don't post content if you think that it might violate these policies. Please note that these policies also apply to external links in your content. This can include clickable URLs and verbally directing users to other sites in the video, as well as other forms.
Educational, documentary, scientific or artistic content
We may allow content that violates the misinformation policies noted on this page if that content includes additional context in the video, audio, title or description. This is not an excuse to promote misinformation. We may make exceptions if the purpose of the content is to condemn, dispute or satirise misinformation that violates our policies.
We also allow personal expressions of opinion on the above topics as long as they don't otherwise violate any of the policies outlined above.
What happens if content violates this policy
If your content violates this policy, we'll remove the content and send you an email to let you know. If we can't verify that a link that you post is safe, we may remove the link.
If this is the first time that you've violated our Community Guidelines, you'll probably get a warning with no penalty to your channel. If it's not, we may issue a strike against your channel. If you get three strikes within 90 days, your channel will be terminated. You can learn more about our strikes system here.
We may terminate your channel or account for repeated violations of the Community Guidelines or Terms of Service. We may also terminate your channel or account after a single case of severe abuse or when the channel is dedicated to a policy violation. You can learn more about channel or account terminations here.