YouTube has released a Violative View Rate (VVR), an indicator of how much video violating the policy is being watched on YouTube. YouTube claims that YouTube videos are improving through the trend of falling VVR.
The VVR is released as part of the quarterly measured transparency report. VVR determines whether a content reviewer violates YouTube policies for samples taken from videos published on YouTube, and calculates by measuring the number of times each video is viewed. However, because the policy changes and whether or not the video is violated, the VVR changes somewhat depending on the season.
In fact, if you look at the chart showing the VVR trend from the 4th quarter of 2017 to the 4th quarter of 2020, the VVR has been decreasing over the three years. According to YouTube, VVR in the fourth quarter of 2017, immediately after the introduction of machine learning, fell to around 0.7% in the fourth quarter of 2017, compared to 0.16% in the fourth quarter of 2020. YouTube explained that the reduction in VVR by more than 70% compared to the fourth quarter of 2017 was due to the effect of machine learning.
However, in the case of content that is not deleted according to the violation, such as videos that do not violate the community guidelines even though the YouTube advertisement guidelines are violated, VVR is not affected. Also, it is not considered that it is ambiguous whether or not a rule is violated. Therefore, VVR does not accurately reflect whether or not content that violates the policy is absolutely excluded from YouTube.
YouTube videos are viewed billions of times a day, so it is practically impossible to grasp the full picture. YouTube is the best way for VVR to understand the impact of harmful content on viewers and where to improve. YouTube said that YouTube will fulfill its responsibilities to protect users from videos that VVR is harmful to YouTube. Related information can be found here.