Youtube removes videos police say are fuelling surge of violent crime

Youtube has deleted just over half of the music videos Scotland Yard has asked to be taken down because they incite violence, according to police figures.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick has blamed social media for fuelling a surge in murders in London, singling out the drill genre of rap music for glamourising violent crime.

Drill videos easily available to view online feature hooded and masked gangs threatening each other with violent lyrics, gestures and hand signals, with some attracting millions of views.

The Met has built up a database of more than 1,400 videos to use as an intelligence tool as the force tries to tackle an increase in killings and other violent crime, with more than 60 murder investigations launched already this year.

In the past two years, Scotland Yard has asked Youtube to take down between 50 and 60 music videos, having to prove they incite violence for the requests to be successful.

The video-sharing site, owned by Google, has removed more than 30 of the clips from the platform in cases where they were found to be in violation of its policies.

Youtube said the majority of the videos flagged up by the Met are no longer available on its platform and the company has developed policies to tackle videos related to knife crime.

Some of the drill music videos still available online feature groups associated with the post code war linked to the murder of Tanesha Melbourne, 17, who was shot dead in Tottenham last month.

It is not known whether the Met has asked Youtube to remove them.