What is the Inclusion Working Group?
Back in 2020, YouTube established the Inclusion Working Group (“IWG") as part of our commitment to making sure the voices of historically underrepresented communities were incorporated in the development of our products, processes, and policies. The group’s focus is to identify key equity risks and opportunities as early as possible.
We set up the IWG recognizing the most important part would be its members. As a consultative body that works across teams, the IWG includes a dedicated product inclusion lead, executive sponsorship, and participation from employee resource groups and leaders from across YouTube, including experts in machine learning and responsible AI. The IWG formally creates a way to implement feedback from employee resource groups and product experts — and most importantly, acknowledge them for their contribution.
Why does this matter?
We think it's important to have our users see themselves and their lived experiences reflected in our products and policies.
To do this, it's important to consider equity and inclusion early in the development process, to give teams the time to address risks and adjust direction if needed. This has allowed us to hold individual teams and the entire organization to a higher standard of equity.