Youtube reportedly relaxes moderation policies amid free speech push

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YouTube has reportedly quietly revised its moderation policies late last year, ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

According to internal documents recently surfaced by The New York Times, the platform has eased restrictions on politically, socially, and culturally sensitive content. Material previously subject to removal may now remain online if it serves the public interest.

YouTube has also raised the threshold for flagging such content from 25% of a video to at least 50% before removal is considered.

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In response to The New York Times, a YouTube spokesperson said the platform updates its public interest exception guidelines to reflect evolving discourse and aims to balance free expression with preventing serious harm.

As part of internal training on the updated policy, YouTube’s trust and safety team reportedly advised moderators to lean toward preserving content if the value of free expression outweighed the potential for harm. Moderators were also told to escalate questionable cases to supervisors rather than remove them outright.

To illustrate the shift, YouTube reportedly shared real-world examples with staff. One involved a video titled “RFK Jr. delivers SLEDGEHAMMER blows to gene-altering JABS”, which falsely claimed COVID-19 vaccines alter human genes and is a clear breach of YouTube’s medical misinformation policy. Despite this, the video was reportedly allowed to stay up due to its perceived public interest value.

Training materials pointed to the presence of high-profile figures such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., JD Vance, Elon Musk, and Megyn Kelly, as well as references to government actions and academic research, as markers of newsworthiness. YouTube also noted the creator did not explicitly discourage vaccination, classifying the content as low risk. Checks by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE found the video has since been taken down.

Another example involved a 43-minute video that included a slur targeting a transgender person. YouTube reportedly allowed it to remain, citing only one instance of rule violation. A separate South Korean video featuring political commentary about former president Yoon Suk Yeol was also reportedly left online, despite a violent remark imagining Yoon in a guillotine. YouTube’s training materials stated the comment posed little risk as it was viewed as hyperbolic and not a credible threat.

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to YouTube for more information.

YouTube isn’t the only platform loosening its grip. Earlier this year, Meta doubled down on its push for “free speech", ditching its traditional fact-checking programme in favour of a community-led model inspired by X’s community notes.

Under the new system, contributors from diverse backgrounds will write and rate contextual notes on potentially misleading posts. Only notes that reach a broad consensus will be published, a move Meta says is designed to reduce editorial bias and empower users.

Once the programme is fully rolled out, Meta will no longer control what notes are written or shown. All contributions will come from users.

Meta is also tweaking its approach to political content. According to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the company plans to reduce the overall volume of political posts in user feeds, while giving users more control over how much of that content they want to see. Political content recommendations will now be based on personalised signals, with more options on the way to help users filter their experience.

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