We should skewer lies, not ban them

“Jews admit organising white genocide.” So said David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, in a Youtube video he posted in 2015. Now, as one familiar with “Jew hate” – on Twitter I’ve been accused of single-handedly controlling the media in the interests of my Israeli masters – that struck me as standard anti-semitic fare, says Stephen Pollard. Yet Duke’s Youtube video became a major issue last week when MPS used it as “a stick” to beat Google (which owns Youtube), and attracted even more rage from “right-thinking” people when Google still refused to take it down. But Google was right. It would be a different thing if Duke were inciting violence against Jews. But to ban his views simply because we find them abhorrent is “a form of mob rule dressed up in civilised clothes”. Who is to decide which views are acceptable and which are not? The best way to “skewer lies and hate” is not to suppress them – that only makes them spread – but to use media to rebut them. If Youtube wants to be seen as open to all, it must allow users to post what they want – even if what’s posted does “make any decent person shake with anger”.