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WF-HGPFUV

YouTube's Algorithms Failed to Remove Violating Content Related to Suicide and Self-Harm

Terms-of-service-violating videos related to suicide and self-harm reportedly bypassed YouTube’s content moderation algorithms, allegedly resulting in exposure of graphic content to young users via recommended videos.

Date it happened
2019-02-04
Organisation involved
YouTube
Product, system or model
Youtube has failed to remove inappropriate suicide-themed content before and has offered worrying search term recommendations related to self-harm.
Where this came from
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Attribution

This incident was imported from AI Incident Database and is used under CC BY-SA 4.0. Our additions to it — the structured fields, the translation, the checks against other reports — are published under the same licence.

This is a record of what was reported, not a finding that anyone broke the law. If it names your organisation and you believe it is wrong, the corrections process is free and open to everyone.