Violent Criminal Organizations


The safety of our creators, viewers, and partners is our highest priority. We look to each of you to help us protect this unique and vibrant community. It’s important you understand our Community Guidelines, and the role they play in our shared responsibility to keep YouTube safe. Take the time to carefully read the policy below. You can also check out this page for a full list of our guidelines.

Content intended to praise, promote, or aid violent criminal organizations is not allowed on YouTube. These organizations are not allowed to use YouTube for any purpose, including recruitment.

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.

If you believe anyone is in immediate danger, you should reach out to your local law enforcement agency to report the situation immediately.

What this means for you

If you're posting content

Don’t post content on YouTube if it fits any of the descriptions noted below.

  • Content produced by violent criminal or terrorist organizations
  • Content praising or memorializing prominent terrorist or criminal figures in order to encourage others to carry out acts of violence
  • Content praising or justifying violent acts carried out by violent criminal or terrorist organizations
  • Content aimed at recruiting new members to violent criminal or terrorist organizations
  • Content depicting hostages or posted with the intent to solicit, threaten, or intimidate on behalf of a violent criminal or terrorist organization
  • Content that depicts the insignia, logos, or symbols of violent criminal or terrorist organizations in order to praise or promote them

If posting content related to terrorism or crime for an educational, documentary, scientific, or artistic purpose, be mindful to provide enough information in the video or audio itself so viewers understand the context. Graphic or controversial footage with sufficient context may be subject to age-restrictions or a warning screen.

This policy applies to videos, video descriptions, comments, live streams, and any other YouTube product or feature.  Please note this is not a complete list.

Examples

Here are some examples of content that’s not allowed on YouTube.

  • Raw and unmodified reuploads of content created by terrorist or criminal organizations
  • Celebrating terrorist leaders or their crimes in songs or memorials
  • Celebrating terrorist or criminal organizations in songs or memorials
  • Content directing users to sites that espouse terrorist ideology, are used to disseminate prohibited content, or are used for recruitment
  • Video game content which has been developed or modified (“modded”) to glorify a violent event, its perpetrators, or support violent criminal or terrorist organizations

Please remember these are just some examples, and don't post content if you think it might violate this policy.

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 this is your first time violating our Community Guidelines, you’ll get a warning with no penalty to your channel. If it’s not, we’ll issue a strike against your channel. If you get 3 strikes, your channel will be terminated. You can learn more about our strikes system here.

  Visit Creator Academy for more

Would you rather learn about our Community Guidelines through videos and quizzes? Check out our Creator Academy course.

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