Published 12:32 IST, August 6th 2019
YouTube terminates the account of 14-year-old for hate-speech, YouTuber threatens 'gun violence' at YouTube HQ
YouTube has permanently deleted the account of a 14-year-old YouTuber "Soph" for violating its hate speech policies
YouTube has permanently deleted the account of a 14-year-old YouTuber "Soph" for violating its hate speech policies. Recently, Soph uploaded a video that was filled with anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, and the video was flagged for violating the platform's hate speech policies and community guidelines. After Soph's channel with one million subscribers received third community guidelines strike in 90 days, YouTube permanently deleted her account basis of its three-strike policy. After YouTube terminated her channel, the 14-year-old reportedly tweeted a photo of herself holding what looked like a gun, along with the message: "youtube headquarters here I come." Soph later deleted the alleged controversial tweet and said that it was a joke.
The Google-owned video platform took action on Soph's recent video calling the LGBTQ community paedophiles. She is known for her alleged derogatory and hateful remarks against Muslims and immigrants. In a 13-minute-long video titled "Pride & Prejudice," Soph criticised the LGBTQ community and Pride Month. She referred to Pride Month as "30 days of AIDS-carrying pedophile-victims patting themselves on the back for their lifestyles." According to BuzzFeed, Soph encouraged her followers to "make sure to blame me in your manifestos" in the introduction of her video. It wasn't clear if Soph was referring to the kind of manifesto posted online by the Christchurch shooter. On Saturday, a similar manifesto was published on 8chan by the suspect in El Paso shooting.
A few weeks ago, YouTube temporarily suspended and demonetised Soph's account for violating YouTube's hate speech policy and community guidelines. Last year, a 39-year-old shooter opened fire at YouTube headquarters after claiming YouTube had unreasonably demonetised and censored her videos. She had wounded three people before killing herself.
In June, YouTube tightened its policies around harmful videos, days after IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad warned against the misuse of digital platforms in India.
"We're taking another step in our hate speech policy by specifically prohibiting videos alleging that a group is superior in order to justify discrimination, segregation or exclusion based on qualities like age, gender, race, caste, religion, sexual orientation or veteran status," YouTube had said in its blog post.
Updated 12:32 IST, August 6th 2019