Video sharing site YouTube is wiping out videos with extremist content and denial of events such as the Holocaust.
On Wednesday, the Google-owned video service released a new policy in an effort to quell hate speech. YouTube will be removing and prohibiting videos “alleging that a group is superior in order to justify discrimination, segregation or exclusion based on qualities like age, gender, race, caste, religion, sexual orientation or veteran status.”
The online video-sharing platform did not list down the channels or videos it is set to remove. YouTube has drawn flak for how the company enforces policies when it comes allowing content with hateful or discriminating messages.
The policy was updated in the wake of controversy last Tuesday. The site dismissed demands of taking down Steven Crowder’s channel. Crowder is a known conservative commentator who used homophobic slurs against Vox journalist, Carlos Maza. Maza, who identifies as gay, created a supercut video where Crowder is heard calling him a “lispy sprite” and “little queer.”
In YouTube’s defense, the site argued that there was no violation of rules on Crowder’s part. In a series of Tweets, the website said:
“Our teams spent the last few days conducting an in-depth review of the videos flagged to us, and while we found language that was clearly hurtful, the videos as posted don’t violate our policies,” the company said.
“Opinions can be deeply offensive, but if they don’t violate our policies, they’ll remain on our site.”
(2/4) Our teams spent the last few days conducting an in-depth review of the videos flagged to us, and while we found language that was clearly hurtful, the videos as posted don’t violate our policies. We’ve included more info below to explain this decision:
— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) June 4, 2019
Now, YouTube decided to pull out Crowder from their partnership program that allows channels to run paid ads on their videos.
Regarding this, the site Tweeted:
“We came to this decision because a pattern of egregious actions has harmed the broader community and is against our YouTube Partner Program policies.”