Key Points:
- YouTube removed 179 million videos, 139 million channels and 25 billion comments between 2019 and 2024, most of which were flagged by automated systems.
- Child safety and spam were the top drivers of removals, accounting for more than half of all deleted videos and over 90 percent of channels.
- In 2024, more than 1.3 million videos were removed after surpassing 1,000 views, raising questions about consumer and brand safety.
Google-owned video platform YouTube has removed nearly 180 million videos and over 130 million channels associated with harmful content over the past six years, according to a recent analysis of Google Transparency Report data.
The figures, compiled by the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB), highlight the scale of enforcement actions taken by YouTube as it attempts to balance its vast user-generated video ecosystem against community guidelines meant to protect consumers and advertisers.
Between 2019 and 2024, YouTube deleted 178.5 million videos, 138.5 million channels and 24.7 billion comments, the VAB said, citing Google’s transparency reports.
On average, the platform removed about 30 million videos and 23 million channels each year, with automated systems responsible for the overwhelming majority of takedowns.
Child safety violations and scams drove most video removals: Over the six-year period, YouTube pulled down more than 62 million videos for child safety issues and nearly 33 million for spam, misleading practices and scams. Content flagged as violent or graphic, sexually explicit, or harmful and dangerous rounded out the bulk of removals.
Channel takedowns were dominated by spam and scam accounts, which made up more than 90 percent of all enforcement actions. That amounted to more than 126 million channels, a figure that dwarfs the number of total Wikipedia pages and far exceeds the number of active Twitch streamer accounts.
Comment moderation was equally aggressive. YouTube removed 24.7 billion comments in the same six-year period, with more than 5.3 billion taken down in 2024 alone, a 47 percent jump compared to the prior year. Roughly 70 percent of deleted comments were tied to spam or scam activity, while harassment and child safety issues made up much of the remainder.
The report also noted that unsafe videos often remain viewable before being taken down. From 2020 to 2024, more than half of all removed videos had been watched at least once, and in 2024, over 1.3 million videos were deleted after surpassing 1,000 views.
Geographically, India and Brazil accounted for about 40 percent of all video removals in early 2025, with the United States, Indonesia and Bangladesh following.
The full report is available to view by clicking or tapping here.
Google and YouTube are subsidiary businesses of Alphabet, Inc.
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