YouTube said it will not remove a bystander video of the mass shooting on Monday at the King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, that includes footage of bodies on the ground.
Viewers must click through two warnings to watch the video, which state that "this video may be inappropriate for some users" and "the following content has been identified by the YouTube community as inappropriate or offensive to some audiences."
In the past, YouTube and other video-hosting networks like Twitter and Facebook have removed videos with graphic violence, including in 2019 when a gunman in Christchurch, New Zealand, streamed his own massacre. But YouTube said in a statement Wednesday that the Boulder video had been reviewed and would be allowed to remain.
"Violent content intended to shock or disgust viewers and hate speech are not allowed on YouTube, and as a result we have removed a number of videos for violating our policies," a company spokesperson, Elena Hernandez, said in a statement. "We do allow certain violent or graphic content with sufficient news or documentary context, and so we've applied an age restriction to this particular content. We will continue to monitor this rapidly changing situation."
YouTube said it considers a variety of factors when deciding whether to remove a video, including whether it provides context for the violence, whether the violence is the focus of the video, and if the accompanying text indicates intent to shock or disgust viewers.
