Official Blog
Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism to hold first meeting in San Francisco
Monday, 31 July 2017
The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism is holding its first workshop on August 1, 2017, in San Francisco, where representatives from the tech industry, government, and non-governmental organizations are coming together to share information and best practices about how to counter the threat of terrorist content online.
Formed last month
by Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube, the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism formalizes and structures how our companies work together to curtail the spread of terrorism and violent extremism on our hosted consumer services. Building on the work started within the EU Internet Forum and the
shared industry hash database
, the GIFCT is fostering collaboration with smaller tech companies, civil society groups and academics, and governments.
In addition to the founding companies of the GIFCT, more than two dozen other technology companies and NGOs will be participating in Tuesday's meeting. We also welcome United Kingdom Home Secretary Rt Hon Amber Rudd MP and United States Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke — as well as representatives from Australia, Canada, the European Union, and the United Nations — to discuss mutual areas of cooperation.
At Tuesday's meeting we will be formalizing our goals for collaboration and identifying with smaller companies specific areas of support needed as part of the the GIFCT's workplan. Our mission is to substantially disrupt terrorists' ability to use the Internet in furthering their causes, while also respecting human rights. This disruption includes addressing the promotion of terrorism, dissemination of propaganda, and the exploitation of real-world terrorist events through online platforms. To achieve this, we will join forces around three strategies:
Employing and leveraging technology
Sharing knowledge, information and best practices, and
Conducting and funding research.
In the next several months, we also aim to achieve the following:
Secure the participation of five additional companies to the industry hash-sharing database for violent terrorist imagery; two of which have already joined: Snap Inc. and Justpaste.it
Reach 50 companies to share best practices on how to counter terrorism online through the
Tech Against Terrorism
project in partnership with ICT4Peace and the U.N. Counter Terrorism Executive Directorate
Conduct four knowledge-sharing workshops — starting in San Francisco Tuesday, with plans for further meetings later this year in other locations around the world
We believe that the best approach to tackling online terrorism is to collaborate with each other and with others outside the private sector, including civil society and government. We look forward to further cooperation as we develop a joint strategic plan over time.
Bringing new Redirect Method features to YouTube
Thursday, 20 July 2017
A month ago, we told you about
four new steps
we’re taking to combat terrorist content on YouTube. One of our core areas of focus is more work to counter online violent extremism. As a first step we’re now rolling out features from Jigsaw’s Redirect Method on YouTube.
Over the past years,
Jigsaw
partnered with
Moonshot CVE
to conduct extensive research to understand how extremist groups leverage technology to spread their message and recruit new members. From there, they created the
Redirect Method
, which uses curated video content to redirect people away from violent extremist propaganda and steer them toward video content that confronts extremist messages and debunks its mythology. Today, YouTube is rolling out a feature using the model proven by the Redirect Method: when people search for certain keywords on YouTube, we will display a playlist of videos debunking violent extremist recruiting narratives.
This early product integration of the Redirect Method on YouTube is our latest effort to provide more resources and more content that can help change minds of people at risk of being radicalized. Over the coming weeks, we hope to build on this by:
Expanding the new YouTube product functionality to a wider set of search queries in other languages beyond English.
Using machine learning to dynamically update the search query terms.
Working with expert NGOs on developing new video content designed to counter violent extremist messaging at different parts of the radicalization funnel.
Collaborating with Jigsaw to expand the “Redirect Method” in Europe.
This work is made possible by our partnerships with NGOs that are experts in this field, and we will continue to collaborate closely with them to help support their research through our technological tools. We hope our work together will also help open and broaden a dialogue about other work that can be done to counter radicalization of potential recruits.
As we develop this model of the Redirect Method on YouTube, we’ll measure success by how much this content is engaged. Stay tuned for more.
The YouTube Team
YouTube spotlight on “Country Foods”
Thursday, 29 June 2017
Everyday young professionals in India move out of their small towns to the big cities in search of their dream jobs and to earn a steady income. Srinath and Laxman did the same and they were employed by a well established media company, earning a good income to take care of their families back home.
They lived together in a small rented apartment and cooked on their own. They made their traditional recipes but frequently used YouTube to try out new cuisines. They were awestruck to see the millions of views for recipe videos on YouTube. With a background in post production, they decided to explore the opportunity for themselves and in August 2016 launched a traditional Indian recipes channel on YouTube.
Despite concerns from their families, they quit their jobs and decided to pursue this as a full-time career. When they partnered with Laxman’s 106-year-old grandmother - Mastanamma - their channel skyrocketed. Her delicious traditional recipes have received audience attention all around the world. We spoke with Srinath about their passion for food, the power of YouTube, and what lies ahead:
How did your family and friends react when you told them about your plans to quit your job and start a YouTube channel?
When I first told my wife about my plans to quit my job to start a YouTube channel, she was not very happy. At the time, I had a good job and a decent salary - we also have kids so she was not supportive of my decision and didn’t understand why I wanted to do this. But both Laxman and I were convinced that we wanted to do this - so we quit our jobs and started the channel and became YouTube creators.
What were your expectations?
We were blessed that our channel started doing well pretty quickly and we started making a similar amount of money as we were in our past jobs. This gave my family some confidence in what I was doing. But after four months, we realized that we needed to do something different to sustain our growth.
At any point did you think that this may not work?
We were visiting Laxman’s village called Gudiwada and since it’s a small village, everybody was aware of our YouTube channel. They were all very happy for us but they had no idea that we were looking for new ideas to build on our start.
That’s when Laxman’s mother suggested that we should try the recipes of Laxman’s grandmother, Mastanamma, because she makes really authentic and delicious dishes. At first we didn’t think much of it but we decided to try her food. Her food was amazing and it was not like anything we had tried before so we decided to record a few videos with her.
Our first video with her was a hit and received 3 million views. We uploaded another video titled “
Watermelon Chicken by My Granny
” and that went viral! We couldn’t believe that this recipe video hit over 8 million views. There truly is magic in her recipes and the food she makes, and that magic is now available on YouTube for everyone to enjoy. She is 106 years old and still enjoys cooking herself and for everyone. Because of YouTube, she’s able to share that passion on a global scale.
What does Mastanamma think about having her own food channel that is now popular all over the world?
Having a YouTube channel has given her new experiences that none of us ever thought were possible. She was even recently interviewed by the BBC! She doesn’t completely realize what she has created but it’s something that is connecting people all around the world. We now visit her once a month and shoot new videos for two or three days of the newest recipes she wants to share on YouTube.
Have you thought about what you want to do next?
We never expected to come this far but we’re delighted that we took a chance and our families are now very happy and supportive of our work. Our income has also gone up tremendously and our viewership comes from all over the world. We want to build on this success and are already working on a new animation channel for kids and families. We’re excited to create something unique in that space as well.
What advice does Mastanamma have for her viewers?
She says that there is no better food than the food you make yourself. Everyone should learn to cook because it’s healthier and brings people together.
#ProudToBe standing with LGBTQ+ and Creators for Change
Tuesday, 27 June 2017
Happy Pride everyone! The LGBTQ+ community has been a vital part of YouTube for a long time, and as our CEO, Susan Wojcicki, stated
last week
, we want to continue supporting creators around the world who are championing the right to be themselves, love who they love, and share that experience proudly with people all across the globe.
We see firsthand how creators can be tremendous forces for good and for change. That’s why we want to shine a light on the inspirational LGBTQ+ community on YouTube who do this every day by highlighting some of their voices through our Creators for Change program. Today,
YouTube Creators for Change
is proud to launch #ProudToBe, our fifth annual Pride campaign.
The videos from this community are as varied and exceptional as the group of people making them: they’re encouraging, challenging, honest, fiery, tender, celebratory, funny, and totally badass. Thanks to these voices, people around the world can turn to YouTube to find a connection when they need it -- especially if they live in a place where they don’t have the freedom to be themselves.
With that in mind, this year we hope people around the world will join us in celebrating these all-important everyday acts of bravery and courage – some public, some personal – that make the world better for LGBTQ+ people. If you want to be a part of our #ProudToBe campaign, simply share a video or post about the first time you decided to express yourself in a way that felt truly authentic, despite what anyone said or thought.
Whatever it was, we’re here to help share your story. Because this year we’re celebrating those moments (big and small) that unlock the Pride you feel, inspire Pride in others, and show the world what makes you #ProudToBe.
Marly Ellis, Head of YouTube Brand, recently watched “
A Matter of Life or Death: LGBTQ+ Refugees | Chosen Family | Part 5
.”
Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube Announce Formation of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism
Monday, 26 June 2017
Today, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube are announcing the formation of the
Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism
, which will help us continue to make our hosted consumer services hostile to terrorists and violent extremists.
The spread of terrorism and violent extremism is a pressing global problem and a critical challenge for us all. We take these issues very seriously, and each of our companies have developed policies and removal practices that enable us to take a hard line against terrorist or violent extremist content on our hosted consumer services. We believe that by working together, sharing the best technological and operational elements of our individual efforts, we can have a greater impact on the threat of terrorist content online.
The new forum builds on initiatives including the
EU Internet Forum
and the
Shared Industry Hash Database
; discussions with the U.K. and other governments; and the conclusions of the recent
G7
and
European Council
meetings. It will formalize and structure existing and future areas of collaboration between our companies and foster cooperation with smaller tech companies, civil society groups and academics, governments and supra-national bodies such as the EU and the U.N.
The scope of our work will evolve over time as we will need to be responsive to the ever-evolving terrorist and extremist tactics. Initially, however, our work will focus on:
Technological solutions:
Our companies will work together to refine and improve existing joint technical work, such as the Shared Industry Hash Database; exchange best practices as we develop and implement new content detection and classification techniques using machine learning; and define standard transparency reporting methods for terrorist content removals.
Research:
We will commission research to inform our counter-speech efforts and guide future technical and policy decisions around the removal of terrorist content.
Knowledge-sharing:
We will work with counter-terrorism experts including governments, civil society groups, academics and other companies to engage in shared learning about terrorism. And through a joint partnership with the U.N. Security Council Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate (U.N. CTED) and the ICT4Peace Initiative, we are establishing a broad knowledge-sharing network to:
Engage with smaller companies:
We will help them develop the technology and processes necessary to tackle terrorist and extremist content online.
Develop best practices:
We already partner with organizations such as the
Center for Strategic and International Studies
,
Anti-Defamation League
a
n
d
Global Network Initiative
to identify how best to counter extremism and online hate, while respecting freedom of expression and privacy.
We can socialize these best practices, and develop additional shared learnings on topics such as community guideline development, and policy enforcement.
Counterspeech
: Each of us already has robust counterspeech initiatives in place (e.g., YouTube’s
Creators for Change
, Jigsaw’s
Redirect Method
, Facebook’s P2P and OCCI, Microsoft’s partnership with the
Institute for Strategic Dialogue for counter-narratives on Bing
, Twitter’s global NGO training program). The forum we have established allows us to learn from and contribute to one another’s counterspeech efforts, and discuss how to further empower and train civil society organizations and individuals who may be engaged in similar work and support ongoing efforts such as the Civil society empowerment project (CSEP).
We will be hosting a series of learning workshops in partnership with U.N. CTED/ICT4Peace in Silicon Valley and around the world to drive these areas of collaboration.
Further information on all of the above initiatives will be shared in due course.
Updates from VidCon: more users, more products, more shows and much more
Thursday, 22 June 2017
I just got off stage after a great conversation with Rhett and Link at VidCon, where we announced a number of exciting new updates. We spoke about VR, YouTube TV, new original series and a number of improvements to the core YouTube experience. Let’s talk about that!
An update on our viewers:
A question I get all the time is “How many people actually watch YouTube?” Today, I’m pleased to announce that we crossed a big threshold:
1.5 billion logged in viewers visit YouTube every single month.
That’s the equivalent of one in every five people around the world! And how much do those people watch? On average,
our viewers spend over an hour a day
watching YouTube on mobile devices alone.
Making VR for everyone:
I also spoke about how we want to make VR more accessible and more affordable for viewers and creators. The reality is, filming 360-degree VR videos isn’t easy for most creators and some VR cameras are expensive. That’s why I’m thrilled that YouTube and Daydream have worked together on a new format,
VR180
, and new cameras, which make it easy and affordable for anyone to make VR videos. This format delivers 3-D video while capturing 180-degrees around you. Creators only have to worry about recording what’s in front of them while viewers get an awesome, immersive experience with a VR headset, or a video that looks just as great on a phone as any other video. Best of all, we’re working with camera manufacturers like LG, Yi and Lenovo to build new VR180 cameras for as little as a couple hundred dollars—comparable to what you’d pay for a point-and-shoot.
A new look for our app and desktop site:
We want to make sure YouTube gives you the best experience when it comes to creating and watching videos. Perhaps our most important job is to show off your videos in the best possible way, no matter what format you choose to shoot them in. Who cares if they’re vertical or horizontal? Shot on a mobile phone or DSLR? Square, 4:3 or 16:9?
In the coming weeks, the YouTube mobile app will dynamically adapt to whatever size you choose to watch it in. That means if you’re watching a vertical, square or horizontal video, the YouTube player will seamlessly adapt itself, filling the screen exactly the way they should.
We want things to look just as good on your desktop, too. Last month, we
opened up
a preview of a new desktop experience. The new design is clean and fresh, and it has new features, such as a super cool Dark Theme that gives videos more of a cinematic look.
Sharing is caring:
We’re making it a whole lot easier for you to share your favorite YouTube videos with friends. Last year, we announced a new sharing feature that lets you share videos right from the YouTube app. In a couple weeks, it’ll be available in Latin America and then throughout the U.S. soon after that.
More markets for YouTube TV:
We are really excited about
YouTube TV
and pleased that it will be expanding to ten more markets in just a couple of weeks, including: Dallas-Fort Worth, Washington, D.C., Houston, Atlanta, Phoenix, Detroit, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne and Charlotte. YouTube TV was built for the YouTube generation that loves live TV but wants it delivered in a way that suits their mobile and flexible lifestyles. In fact, we see more Millennials using YouTube TV than any other generational group. Now - with this expansion - millions more people will be able to stream their favorite live sports and must-see shows from top broadcast and cable networks.
Sign up
to find out when we launch in your market.
New slate of YouTube Red Originals:
To date, we've launched 37 original series and movies on
YouTube Red
, and they've generated nearly a quarter billion views. We are excited about working with our partners to help them create incredible content that delights their fans. Today, we shared details on 12 new projects coming to YouTube Red—here's the preview:
Watch the latest shows from YouTube's biggest stars
I always have an incredible time at VidCon and this year is no different. I met amazing fans and inspirational creators and I experienced, first-hand, the wonderful sense of community and belonging between them. I hope some of these features and announcements will make their YouTube experience—and yours—better than ever.
Susan Wojcicki, CEO, YouTube recently watched Good Mythical Morning —
What’s All Over My Body (CHALLENGE)
The world as you see it with VR180
Thursday, 22 June 2017
Virtual reality helps creators bring their audiences to new, amazing, and even impossible-to-visit places. As a viewer, you get a whole new angle on
shows
,
sports
, and
concerts
you care about. You can walk around the
Eiffel Tower
, dive to the bottom of the
Great Barrier Reef
, or get a new perspective by meeting people
face-to-face
in a way that isn’t possible with a flat view of the world.
We know that virtual reality videos can be really powerful, which is why we invested in supporting 360 and VR formats for over two years. And today, VR video is the most popular way to experience VR. But, we’ve heard from creators and viewers that you want to make and see even more immersive videos on YouTube. So, we’ve been working with Google's Daydream team on a brand new video format, called VR180, that we believe will make VR content even easier to create.
VR180 video focuses on what’s in front of you, are high resolution, and look great on desktop and on mobile. They transition seamlessly to a VR experience when viewed with Cardboard, Daydream, and PSVR, which allow you to view the images stereoscopically in 3-D, where near things look near, and far things appear far. VR180 also supports livestreaming videos so creators and fans can be together in real time.
For creators, you’ll be able to set up and film your videos the way you normally would with any other camera. And, soon, you'll be able to edit using familiar tools like Adobe Premiere Pro. From vlogs, to makeup tutorials to music videos - your videos will work great in VR.
But supporting the format is just the beginning. We want to make cameras that are easy to work with too. The Daydream team is working with several manufacturers to build cameras from the ground up for VR180. These cameras are not only great for creators looking to easily make VR content, but also anyone who wants to capture life’s highlights in VR. They will be as easy to use as point-and-shoot cameras, for around the same price. Videos and livestreams will be easy to upload to YouTube. Cameras from YI, Lenovo, and LG are on the way, and the first ones will hit shelves this winter. For other manufacturers, we’re opening up a VR180 certification program and Z CAM will be one of our first partners. Learn more and sign up for updates at
vr.google.com/vr180
. If you can’t wait to try these out, eligible creators can apply to loan a VR180-enabled camera from one of our
YouTube Spaces
around the globe.
VR180 will unlock opportunities for anyone looking to easily make VR memories. We're just starting to
scratch the surface
of what is possible and look forward to seeing your new videos!
Frank Rodriguez, Product Manager, recently watched "
What's Inside Marshmello Helmet?
"
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