YouTube Community Guidelines

Spam & Deceptive Practices

• Posting large volumes of repetitive, low-value, or unauthorized third-party content.
• Using titles, descriptions, metadata, or thumbnails that do not match the actual content.
• Posting incentive spam, repetitive comments, deceptive material, or channels and accounts that impersonate others.
• Directing users to pornography, malware, phishing, piracy, terrorist content, child sexual abuse material, regulated goods, hate, violence, or dangerous medical misinformation.
• Linking to material that may cause serious harm to democratic processes or that contains a violent attacker's manifesto.

Fake Engagement

• Promoting or linking to services that artificially increase views, likes, subscribers, or other metrics.
• Purchasing views, subscribers, or other fake engagement.
• Manipulating metrics through exchanges such as sub4sub.

Playlists & Other Abuse

• Playlist titles, descriptions, or thumbnails that violate Community Guidelines or mislead viewers.
• Combining otherwise compliant videos in a way that creates prohibited content.
• Playlists containing multiple videos removed for violations or depicting physical, sexual, or emotional abuse of minors.
• Encouraging others to violate the Terms of Service, reposting removed content, or publishing on behalf of a terminated or restricted creator.

Nudity, Sexual Content & Thumbnails

• Depicting covered or uncovered genitals, breasts, buttocks, sexual activity, or fetishes for sexual gratification.
• Using pornographic, nude, sexual, sex-toy, or otherwise offensive sexual imagery in thumbnails.
• Using graphic or violent thumbnails intended to shock viewers.
• Using misleading thumbnails that do not represent the video.

Child Safety

• Sexualizing minors or showing minors participating in dangerous or harmful activities.
• Presenting content unsuitable for children as family-friendly.
• Cyberbullying, harassing, humiliating, or grooming minors.

Suicide, Self-Harm & Eating Disorders

• Promoting or glorifying suicide, self-harm, or eating disorders, or providing instructions and concealment methods.
• Showing minors dangerous related content or graphic self-harm imagery.
• Showing suicide notes, preparations, attempts, rescue footage, or images of a deceased person without sufficient context.
• Showing or instructing suicide or self-harm challenges, or using weight-based humiliation in connection with eating disorders.

Vulgar Language

• Using graphic sexual language, narration, or extensive sounds that simulate sexual activity.
• Using excessive profanity or sexually suggestive terms in videos, titles, thumbnails, or other metadata.

Violent or Dangerous Content

• Encouraging dangerous acts, challenges, pranks, weapon misuse, digital attacks, or illegal services.
• Showing violence, graphic injury, or animal abuse without sufficient context.
• Content created by or used to promote, recruit for, or threaten on behalf of violent extremist, criminal, or terrorist organizations.
• Praising violent organizations, notorious violent individuals, school shootings, or other violent tragedies.
• Using the insignia, logos, or symbols of such organizations for promotional purposes.
• Inciting violence or hatred based on a protected identity, or persistently insulting or defaming an individual or group.

Regulated Goods & Services

Do not directly sell or link to regulated goods or services, including:

• Alcohol, nicotine products, controlled pharmaceuticals, illegal drugs, explosives, firearms, and specified accessories.
• Stolen financial information, account credentials, forged documents, or counterfeit currency.
• Human organs, endangered species, or products made from endangered species.
• Unreviewed gambling sites, prescription drugs sold without a prescription, unlawful medical services, sexual services, or human trafficking.
• Instructions for manufacturing firearms, converting them to automatic fire, disabling safety devices, or installing related components.
• Instructions for producing addictive drugs or poisons, or for facilitating cheating.

Misinformation

• Interfering with participation in a census or other public process.
• Manipulated or misattributed content likely to cause serious real-world harm.
• Dangerous misinformation intended to suppress voters, fabricate candidate eligibility claims, interfere with democratic processes, or undermine election procedures.
• Prevention or treatment misinformation that contradicts health-authority guidance and may cause serious harm.

Educational, Documentary, Scientific, or Artistic Content

Material that might otherwise violate a policy may qualify for an Educational, Documentary, Scientific, or Artistic (EDSA) exception when sufficient context is provided. YouTube determines eligibility based on the complete content.

• Clearly explain the event, source material, and relevant facts.
• Explicitly condemn, oppose, or satirize the dangerous viewpoint instead of promoting it.
• Warn viewers of the risk and clearly discourage imitation of dangerous behavior.