YouTube Will Now Ding Content from White Supremacists as It Targets Hate Speech
YouTube said Wednesday it will begin removing a broad array of content from white supremacists as the social media company attempts to crack down on hate speech, The Washington Post reported.
The new policy will specifically ban videos “alleging that a group is superior in order to justify discrimination, segregation, or exclusion,” the company said in an announcement.
They include groups that “glorify Nazi ideology,” as such beliefs are “inherently discriminatory,” YouTube added.
YouTube had previously drawn a line between “hate” and “superiority,” choosing instead to nix advertising from white supremacists but not outright ban them entirely unless their content promoted violence.
YouTube will also begin dinging content denying that well-documented violent events, like the Holocaust, took place.
Other tech companies are making similar decisions and struggling with how to moderate their platforms.
Facebook decided in March to ban white nationalism and separatism from its content.
The social media giant already prohibited white supremacy but left a type of loophole that civil rights groups argued promulgated hate and racism.
The decision comes shortly after The New York Times reported on June 3 that YouTube’s algorithm was effectively directing content of children in bating suits to users who watched other videos of prepubescent kids.
The algorithm referred users to the videos after they watched sexually themed content.
YouTube ultimately nixed several of the videos but left up others after The New York Times alerted company officials to the problem.
The issue was probably a result of some tweaks to its algorithm, the company told a The New York Times reporter. YouTube is not doing enough to solve the problem, researchers said.
Researchers say the company should turn off its recommendation system on videos of children.
Company officials said that dramatically altering the recommendation algorithm would effectively hurt their business model and effect users who earn money off the platform.
Neither Google nor YouTube have responded to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment about how the company plans on addressing white supremacist content and the instruments child predators use to view children.
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