In recent days, social media platforms have been faced with a series of controversies and scandals. Most prominently, Facebook is in hot waters for the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Potentially reacting to the current political climate and hoping to get in front of any PR disasters, YouTube is taking initiative and banning videos concerning guns.
YouTube’s decision come in a two forms. The first measure is banning videos that teach viewers how to assemble firearms and the second is blocking videos that link to or promote websites that sell firearms or firearm accessories.
Looking at the first of the two measures, banning firearm assembly video tutorials will affect an extremely large number of videos and creators. A quick search on YouTube reveals about 503,000 results if you look up “how to assemble gun” and around 25,800,000 results if you type “how to build gun.” There’s no shortage of tutorials for gun enthusiasts, with just a few referring to toy guns. YouTube has said the restrictions will come into effect starting April, but some channels are already taking measures to ensure their longevity.
InRange TV stated on its Facebook page that it will simply move their content to PornHub, dubbing this platform more resilient when it comes to video streaming: ““YouTube’s newly released released vague and one-sided firearms policy makes it abundantly clear that YouTube cannot be counted upon to be a safe harbor for a wide variety of views and subject matter. PornHub has a history of being a proactive voice in the online community, as well as operating a resilient and robust video streaming platform.”
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