In the midst of ongoing protests regarding the “Black Lives Matter” movement, YouTube is taking the ax to several prominent white supremacist channels that have long been on the platform.
YouTube today confirmed (via The Verge) that it had banned channels belonging to Stefan Molyneux, David Duke, and Richard Spencer — three figures known for being white supremacists in the United States. The channels banned also included Richard Spencer’s National Policy Institute and American Renaissance.
A YouTube spokesperson said that these individuals and channels “repeatedly violated YouTube’s policies… by alleging that members of protected groups were inferior.”
As a platform, YouTube started enforcing and tightening guidelines over supremacists about a year ago. In the time since, the platform has seen “a 5x spike in video removals and have terminated over 25,000 channels for violating our hate speech policies.” Much of that came from smaller channels, but these latest removals are notable for their sheer size. Stefan Molyneux, for example, boasted over 650,000 subscribers. Both Richard Spencer and Stefan Molyneux have criticized YouTube over the bans on social media. Despite their outcry, calling the move “an egregious error,” it seems unlikely any of the channels will be reinstated.
More on YouTube:
- YouTube rolling out Video Chapters on Android, iOS, and the web
- YouTube tests feature that will let you upload and merge multiple 15-second clips
- YouTube Music migration appears to have broken YouTube’s sidebar for some users
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