YouTube Removed 1.9 Million Videos in India Between January and March 2023 for Community Guidelines Violation

Over 1.9 million videos were removed between January and March 2023 in India for violating YouTube’s community guidelines, marking the highest removals among nations, according to a report released by the popular video streaming platform.

During the same period, globally, YouTube removed over 6.48 million videos for violating community guidelines.

The Community Guidelines Enforcement report provides global data on the flags YouTube receives and how YouTube enforces policies.

Between January and March 2023, in India, over 1.9 million videos were removed for violating YouTube’s Community Guidelines. In comparison, in the US, 6,54,968 videos were removed, Russia (4,91,933), and Brazil (4,49,759).

“Since the earliest days as a company, our Community Guidelines have protected the YouTube community from harmful content. We enforce our policies using a combination of machine learning and human reviewers,” YouTube said.

Earlier this month, YouTube said curbing misinformation was critical for platforms and society as tech evolves and AI powered tools come in, and asserted that the video streaming platform will act swiftly against technically manipulated content that aims to mislead users and cause real world harm.

YouTube has well-established community guidelines in place that determine what kind of content is allowed on the platform, Ishan John Chatterjee, Director, India, YouTube, said at the time.

Crackdown on misinformation is an area of critical importance to the platform, according to Chatterjee. “We have made significant investment and advances in doing it. But we know that our work here is never done, so we’ll continuously keep investing in this area,” he had said.