YouTube Is Purging Hateful and Supremacist Content from Its Service

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YouTube is cleaning house again. In its latest sweep, the company announced it is removing and prohibiting supremacist content, such as videos that allege the superiority of one group over another. Videos denying well-documented events (e.g., the Holocaust, Sandy Hook Elementary shooting) are also being cleansed.

Today, we’re taking another step in our hate speech policy by specifically 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. This would include, for example, videos that promote or glorify Nazi ideology, which is inherently discriminatory. Finally, we will remove content denying that well-documented violent events, like the Holocaust or the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, took place.

YouTube is also bringing its updated recommendation system to additional countries this year. Videos of borderline content and harmful disinformation will be limited.

In addition to removing videos that violate our policies, we also want to reduce the spread of content that comes right up to the line. In January, we piloted an update of our systems in the U.S. to limit recommendations of borderline content and harmful misinformation, such as videos promoting a phony miracle cure for a serious illness, or claiming the earth is flat. We’re looking to bring this updated system to more countries by the end of 2019.

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Tsing Mui
News poster at The FPS Review.

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