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By Douglas MacMillan 

This article is being republished as part of our daily reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S. print edition of The Wall Street Journal (March 22, 2018).

YouTube said it would ban videos relating to the sale or assembly of guns and certain gun accessories, as tech giants face growing pressure to limit the promotion of firearms.

The world's largest video site, a division of Alphabet Inc.'s Google, said this week it would prohibit all videos that link directly to sites that sell guns or accessories known as bump stocks, which allow certain firearms to fire as rapidly as machine guns. Bloomberg News and the website Tubefilter reported the policy shift, which YouTube posted on its website on Monday.

Videos showing how to build a gun or install bump-stock devices will also be restricted under the new rules, which the company said it would begin enforcing in April.

The move thrusts YouTube into a national debate inflamed by last month's school shooting in Parkland, Fla. Protests against gun violence have pressured U.S. businesses to distance themselves from the gun industry and the National Rifle Association, the biggest gun lobby group. At the same time, gun-rights activists have vowed to protest businesses that take such action. The NRA didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Google's new policy places broader restrictions on content across YouTube, which has already banned videos explicitly promoting the sale of guns for several years, a YouTube spokeswoman said. The company began restricting videos advertising bump stock devices last October, after the device was used in the massacre of 58 people at a Las Vegas music festival.

"We routinely make updates and adjustments to our enforcement guidelines across all of our policies," the YouTube spokeswoman said. "While we've long prohibited the sale of firearms, we recently notified creators of updates we will be making around content promoting the sale or manufacture of firearms and their accessories."

Karl Kasarda, co-owner of InRange TV, an entertainment site with firearm-related videos on YouTube, said the policy is written so broadly it gives the company latitude to censor any content it doesn't like. For example, he can't tell whether the new policy prohibits videos showing how to properly load a magazine into a gun.

"Their policies are not very clear cut and they are arbitrary," said Mr. Kasada. "You never know when you are going to get hit by them."

A YouTube spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Facebook Inc. bans individuals from using its social network to buy or trade firearms, but allows firearm retailers to engage in commercial activity, according to its website.

Write to Douglas MacMillan at douglas.macmillan@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 22, 2018 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)

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