YouTube publicized on Wednesday it would ban video clips marketing or glorifying racism and discrimination as well as those denying well-documented violent incidents, like the Holocaust or the Sandy Hook elementary school capturing. The notification by the Google-owned video-sharing setup was the newest of a number of technology company moves to filter out hateful and violent articles, which have spurred calls for tougher regulation.
“YouTube has usually had rules of the road, including a longstanding plan against hate speech,” a company statement declared. “Today, we’re using one more step in our hate talk plan by in particular prohibiting videos alleging that a group is excellent in order to justify discrimination, segregation or exclusion based on qualities like age, gender, race, caste, religion, sexual orientation or veteran status .” The move comes after a call by world heads in Paris final month to curb extremism online, following revelations about the live streaming of a mosque massacre in New Zealand.
“We will begin enforcing this updated policy today; however, it will take time for our systems to fully ramp up and we’ll be gradually expanding coverage over the next several months,” YouTube declared. YouTube and other platforms have also been seen as havens for conspiracy theorists denying Holocaust or the September 11 attacks, and for Nazi and white supremacist groups.
In January, YouTube declared it would stop recommending specious videos such as those claiming the world is flat or promoting bogus theories about the September 11, 2001 attacks or the 2012 killings at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut. But it quite short of banning that information. YouTube declared it would seek ways to keep some of the violent content to make it available to researchers. But the recent move is likely to eliminate numerous “channels” that use the platform for monetization.
“We have longstanding advertiser-friendly guidelines that prohibit ads from functioning on videos that include hateful information and we enforce these rigorously,” the statement said. “Channels that frequently brush up against our hate talk policies will be suspended from the YouTube Partner program, meaning they can’t run ads on their channel or utilize other monetization features .”
Earlier this year, Facebook announced it would ban praise or support for white nationalism and white separatism as part of a stepped-up crackdown on hate talk. The moves by social media have prompted criticism among right-wing activists in the United States, and President Donald Trump has claimed that online platforms are seeking to suppress conservative voices. YouTube did not disclose the names of any groups or channels that may be stopped.
The YouTube move comes after a report in The Verge documenting the harassment of a journalist based on his race and sexual orientation by right-wing commentator Steven Crowder. According to the Verge, Crowder’s channel would not be affected by the latest reject