YouTube turns off far-right channels over hate speech

YouTube on Monday shut down six far-right channels for violating rules against “supremacist” content, booting videos by David Duke, Stefan Molyneux and Richard Spencer.

YouTube pulled the plug on the channels as online social media platforms face increasing pressure to crack down on hateful rhetoric.

“We have strict policies prohibiting hate speech on YouTube, and terminate any channel that repeatedly or egregiously violates those policies,” YouTube said in response to an AFP inquiry about the move.

Since updating guidelines a year ago to better address supremacist content, YouTube saw a fivefold spike in video removals and has terminated more than 25,000 channels for violating hate speech policies, the spokesperson added.

YouTube said that the channels removed Monday included Duke, Molyneux, Spencer and American Renaissance.

All the terminated channels broke YouTube rules by alleging that members of protected groups were innately inferior to others, according to the Google-owned video platform.

Some of the nixed channels also violated rules against linking YouTube videos to hateful content hosted elsewhere on the internet, it said.

Spencer confirmed the suspension of his account in a tweet that included a screen-capture of a message from YouTube citing policies against glorifying or inciting violence against a person or group.

In a video posted on Twitter, Molyneux said his offerings on YouTube were erased, contending that the action was unwarranted.