Hate speech is not allowed on YouTube. We don't allow content that promotes violence or hatred against individuals or groups based on any of the following attributes, which indicate a protected group status under YouTube's policy:
- Age
- Caste
- Disability
- Ethnicity
- Gender identity and expression
- Nationality
- Race
- Immigration status
- Religion
- Sex/Gender
- Sexual orientation
- Victims of a major violent event and their kin
- Veteran status
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 a few videos or comments that you would like to report, you can report the channel.
What this policy means for you
If you're posting content
Don't post content on YouTube if the purpose of that content is to do one or more of the following:
- Encourage violence against individuals or groups based on their protected group status. We don't allow threats on YouTube and we treat implied calls for violence as real threats. You can learn more about our policies on threats and harassment.
- Incite hatred against individuals or groups based on their protected group status.
Other types of content that violate this policy
- Dehumanisation of individuals or groups by calling them subhuman, comparing them to animals, insects, pests, disease or any other non-human entity based on their protected group status.
- Praise or glorification of violence against individuals or groups based on their protected group status.
- Use of racial, religious or other slurs and stereotypes that incite or promote hatred based on protected group status. This can take the form of speech, text or imagery promoting these stereotypes or treating them as factual.
- Claim that individuals or groups are physically or mentally inferior, deficient or diseased based on their protected group status. This includes statements that one group is less than another, calling them less intelligent, less capable or damaged. This also includes calls for the subjugation or domination over individuals or groups based on their protected group status.
- Promotion of hateful supremacism by alleging the superiority of a group over those with protected group status to justify violence, discrimination, segregation or exclusion. This includes content containing hateful supremacist propaganda, such as the recruitment of new members or requests for financial support for their ideology and music videos promoting hateful supremacism in the lyrics, metadata or imagery.
- Conspiratorial claims that individuals or groups are evil, corrupt or malicious based on their protected group status.
- Denial or minimisation of a well-documented, major violent event or the victimhood of such an event.
- Attacks on individuals or groups based on their emotional, romantic and/or sexual attraction to other people.
Educational, documentary, scientific and artistic content
We may allow content that includes hate speech if that content includes additional educational, documentary, scientific or artistic context. Additional context may include condemning, refuting, including opposing views or satirising hate speech. This is not an excuse to promote hate speech. Examples include:
- A documentary about a hate group: Educational content that isn't supporting the group or promoting ideas would be allowed. A documentary promoting violence or hatred wouldn't be allowed.
- A documentary about the scientific study of humans: A documentary about how theories have changed over time, even if it includes theories about the inferiority or superiority of specific groups, would be allowed because it's educational. We won't allow a documentary claiming that there's scientific evidence today that an individual or group is inferior or subhuman.
- Historical footage of an event, like WWII, which doesn't promote violence or hatred.
This policy applies to videos, video descriptions, comments, live streams and any other YouTube product or feature. Please note these policies also apply to external links in your content. This can include clickable URLs and verbally directing users to other sites in a video, as well as other forms.
For educational, documentary, scientific or artistic content that includes hate speech, this context must appear in the images or audio of the video itself. Providing it in the title or description is insufficient.
Monetisation and other penalties
In some rare cases, we may remove content or issue other penalties when a creator:
- Repeatedly encourages abusive audience behaviour.
- Repeatedly targets, insults and abuses a group based on protected group status across multiple uploads.
- Exposes a group with protected group status to risks of physical harm based on the local social or political context.
- Creates content that harms the YouTube ecosystem by persistently inciting hostility against a group with protected group status for personal financial gain.
Examples
Here are examples of hate speech that is not allowed on YouTube.
- 'I'm glad this [violent event] happened. They got what they deserved [referring to people with protected group status].'
- '[People with protected group status] are dogs' or '[people with protected group status] are like animals'.
More examples
- 'Get out there and punch a [person with protected group status].'
- 'Everyone in [groups with protected group status] are criminals and thugs.'
- '[Person with protected group status] is scum of the earth.'
- '[People with protected group status] are a disease.'
- '[People with protected group status] are less intelligent than us because their brains are smaller.'
- '[Group with protected group status] threaten our existence, so we should drive them out at every chance we get.'
- '[Group with protected group status] have an agenda to run the world and get rid of us.'
- '[Protected group status] is just a form of mental illness that needs to be cured.'
- '[Person with protected group status] shouldn't be educated in schools because they shouldn't be educated at all.'
- 'All of the so-called victims of this violent event are actors. No one was hurt and this is just a false flag.'
- 'People died in the event, but a truly insignificant number.'
- Shouting '[people with protected group status] are pests!' at someone regardless of whether the person does or does not have the alleged protected group status.
- Video game content that has been developed or modified ('modded') to promote violence or hatred against a group with any of the attributes noted above.
Please remember that these are just some examples and don't post content if you think that it might violate this policy
What happens if content violates this policy
If your content violates this policy, we will 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. Note that violative URLs posted within the video itself or in the video's metadata may result in the video being removed.
If this is the first time that you've violated our community guidelines, you'll most likely get a warning with no penalty to your channel. You will have the chance to take policy training to allow the warning to expire after 90 days. The 90-day period starts from when the training is completed, not when the warning is issued. However, if the same policy is violated within that 90-day window, the warning will not expire and your channel will be given a strike. If you violate a different policy after completing the training, you will get another warning.
If you get three strikes within 90 days, your channel will be terminated. Learn more about our strikes system.
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. We may prevent repeat offenders from taking policy training in the future. Learn more about channel or account terminations.
If we think that your content comes close to hate speech, we may limit YouTube features available for that content. You can learn more about limited features here.