After going viral and grabbing headlines worldwide, the Tide Pod Challenge will cease to exist on YouTube, as the company has now implemented a strategic ban on videos containing this dangerous act.
The company released a statement saying "YouTube’s Community Guidelines prohibit content that’s intended to encourage dangerous activities that have an inherent risk of physical harm. We work to quickly remove flagged videos that violate our policies."
YouTube will also penalize any accounts that continue to upload videos of individuals engaging in the challenge, as they will be at odds with the company's code of ethics around proper content and conduct.
Tide has also done its part to try and nullify the widespread fascination around engaging in this potentially fatal activity, taking to Twitter to try and create a clever way to deter people from enacting this viral trend. The company even enlisted Rob Gronkowski to help reach a wider audience, and reveal the severity of this practice.
This warning came shortly after 39 incidents of teenagers ingesting the product were reported to the Association of Poison Control Centres just halfway through this month. Tide reminded the public that their "laundry pacs are a highly concentrated detergent meant to clean clothes and they’re used safely in millions of households every day. They should only be used to clean clothes and kept up, closed and away from children." The company reinstates the fact that they "have been consistently proactive in providing consumers with the right usage guidance and tools to enable them to use the product safely."
