Youtube gets tough to protect people's privacy

Youtube will now remove videos that it believes invade people's privacy or harass, impersonate or threaten them.

The video sharing site has expanded the 'community guidelines' and warned it will remove videos that are flagged by users as a violation of that person’s privacy.

According to the site, its staff “review flagged videos 24 hours a day, seven days a week to determine whether they violate our Community Guidelines. When they do, we remove them."

The original guidelines banned videos containing sex or nudity; hate speech; those that are considered shocking or disgusting content; dangerous or illegal acts; copyright violations or inappropriate material involving children.

It has also removed videos that have been claimed to breach copyright.

However Youtube will now remove videos that readily identify people who have not consented to the posting, as well as those that show other people’s personal information.

This information includes phone numbers, addresses, credit card details and even government IDs. The site owners also said that material designed to harass people was not welcome

“We're serious about keeping our users safe and suspend accounts that violate people's privacy. If you wouldn't say it to someone's face, don't say it on Youtube. And if you're looking to attack, harass, demean, or impersonate others, go elsewhere,” warn the guidelines.

The site will also monitor comments from people watching and warned that users “shouldn't feel threatened when they're on Youtube. Don't leave threatening comments on other people's videos."

A Youtube spokesman said that the expansion of the guidelines was not "a new policy or a change to our Community Guidelines but rather additional explanatory material to help our users understand the Community Guidelines".