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YouTube updates its policies on videos featuring guns

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By Minda Smiley, Reporter

March 21, 2018 | 2 min read

YouTube is cracking down on content that features guns, adding its name to the list of companies who are changing their firearm policies in the wake of last month’s mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida that killed 17 people.

YouTube image, taken from Pexels

The video site will no longer allow content that “intends to sell firearms or certain firearms accessories through direct sales (e.g., private sales by individuals) or links to sites that sell these items.” Banned accessories include, but are not limited to, bump stocks and high capacity magazines.

YouTube will also prohibit content that provides instructions on manufacturing a firearm, ammunition, high capacity magazines and homemade silencers. Specifically, it will ban videos that show how to convert a firearm to automatic or simulated automatic firing capabilities.

The new policies will begin to take effect next month.

"We routinely make updates and adjustments to our enforcement guidelines across all of our policies," said a YouTube spokesperson in a statement. "While we’ve long prohibited the sale of firearms, we recently notified creators of updates we will be making around content promoting the sale or manufacture of firearms and their accessories."

Google-owned YouTube is the latest company to revisit its gun policies in the wake of last month's shooting. In recent weeks, companies including Walmart, Dick's Sporting Goods and Kroger-owned Fred Meyer have said they will no longer sell guns to anyone under 21. Brands including Delta, Hertz, United and MetLife have stopped offering discounts to NRA members in the wake of the massacre.

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