YouTube

YouTube Says Graphic Nashville Body Camera Video Can Stay Online Despite Rules Against Violent Content

YouTube says the Nashville video's educational value and the public interest justify keeping it on the platform for users 18 years old or older.

Nashville Police

YouTube said Tuesday that the police body camera video from the school shooting Monday in Nashville, Tennessee, would normally violate its policy against graphic violence but that the platform will leave the video online with certain safeguards.

The Google-owned company said the video was in the public interest as it can educate people about what happened during the shooting incident. 

“Following the tragic attack in Nashville Tennessee, some footage released by the Nashville Police Department has been age-restricted with a warning interstitial because of its graphic nature and will remain on YouTube as it is in the public interest,” Jack Malon, a YouTube spokesperson, said in a statement.

“Additionally, to ensure people are connected with high-quality information about this unfolding news event, our systems are prominently surfacing videos from authoritative sources in search and recommendations, including by surfacing on our homepage as well as the Top News shelf above related search results,” he said.

Facebook presented the video in a similarly restricted way Tuesday: with a warning that it contained graphic content requiring two clicks to see the video. Meta, Facebook's parent company, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com here.

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