Bulletins

YouTube cracks down on Qanon, but stops short of ban

Under a new policy, which YouTube announced in a blog post Thursday, the company will prohibit conspiracy theory content that is "used to justify real-world violence," including videos that suggest individuals or groups are complicit in QAnon.

Unlike Facebook's wholesale ban on QAnon accounts, YouTube will allow QAnon videos to stay up if they don't explicitly target individuals or groups.

YouTube cast its decision as part of a years-long evolution of its hate and harassment policies. According to the blog post, since January 2019, QAnon-related YouTube channels have seen an 80% drop in traffic from non-subscribers clicking on YouTube's recommendations. In 2018, YouTube changed its recommendations in order to prevent them from nudging users toward increasingly extremist content. Now, YouTube says this latest change could limit QAnon's spread even more.

"Managing misinformation and harmful conspiracy theories is challenging because the content is always shifting and evolving," the post reads. "To address this kind of content effectively, it's critical that our teams continually review and update our policies and systems to reflect the frequent changes."

Issie Lapowsky

Issie Lapowsky ( @issielapowsky) is Protocol's chief correspondent, covering the intersection of technology, politics, and national affairs. She also oversees Protocol's fellowship program. Previously, she was a senior writer at Wired, where she covered the 2016 election and the Facebook beat in its aftermath. Prior to that, Issie worked as a staff writer for Inc. magazine, writing about small business and entrepreneurship. She has also worked as an on-air contributor for CBS News and taught a graduate-level course at New York University's Center for Publishing on how tech giants have affected publishing.

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