YouTube is pulling the plug on thousands of videos that promote bigoted views, including “videos that promote or glorify Nazi ideology, which is inherently discriminatory,” according to a company blog post. YouTube will also remove “content denying that well-documented violent events, like the Holocaust or the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, took place,” said the post.
The company outlined several categories of videos including those that claim “that a group is superior in order to justify discrimination, segregation or exclusion.” Categories include:
- age
- gender
- race
- caste
- religion
- sexual orientation
- veteran status
YouTube also said that seeks to reduce the spread of content “that comes right up to the line, “such as videos promoting a phony miracle cure for a serious illness, or claiming the earth is flat.” The company began demoting such videos in the U.S. earlier this year and said “the number of views this type of content gets from recommendations has dropped by over 50%.”
Last month Facebook terminated accounts of Alex Jones and others who had engaged in disinformation and discriminatory comments.