YouTube tightens gun policies, bans firearms demos

YouTube will start banning videos that promote websites selling guns and accessories, as well as videos that provide instructions on how to assemble firearms, the company announced Wednesday.

“We routinely make updates and adjustments to our enforcement guidelines across all of our policies,” a YouTube spokeswoman said in a statement to Bloomberg. “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.”

The new YouTube policies will be enforced starting in April, but pro-gun vloggers are already responding to the move. InRange TV, a YouTube channel devoted to firearms, announced on its Facebook page that it was moving to PornHub, the web’s largest porn site, Bloomberg reported.

“YouTube’s newly 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,” InRange TV said. “PornHub has a history of being a proactive voice in the online community, as well as operating a resilient and robust video streaming platform.”

YouTube’s decision comes more than a month after a mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that took the lives of 17 students and teachers renewed the country’s gun-control debate. After the shooting, anti-gun activists set their sights on the National Rifle Association, causing several major companies, including United Airlines, Enterprise, and SimpliSafe, to sever ties with the organization.

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