YouTube cracks down on racist, sexist and similar insults

YouTube is taking ar step to curb hateful and violent speech on its site. video streaming company said it will w take down videos that lob insults at people based on race, expression, sexual orientation or or “protected attributes.” Google-owned company will also prohibit veiled threats of violence, taking a step furr into moderating what people can say on videos y create and uplo.

YouTube has been slapped with criticism from politicians, viewers and video creators for material it allows on — and bans from — site. site has been accused of allowing and fostering hate speech and extremism and creating s for harassment to linger online, along with or digital sites that allow people to uplo ir own material, such as Facebook and Twitter.

YouTube has been reviewing its policies and guidelines for about two years, Matt Halprin, company’s vice president of trust and safety, said in an interview. He said company tries to find a balance between allowing freedom of expression and keeping hateful speech to a minimum.

YouTube has long prohibited outright threats of violence. In June, it updated its hate speech policies to ban videos with white supremacist and Neo-Nazi viewpoints.

But company also received significant pushback that month after it allowed a video to remain on site from conservative commentator Steven Crowder. In video, Crowder used homophobic slurs aimed at Vox reporter Carlos Maza.

Maza publicly criticized YouTube for its decision — but company said it didn’t violate any anti-harassment policies.

That will change today. YouTube confirmed that Crowder’s videos about Maza w violate its new policies and will be removed.

YouTube also anunced it would take action against channels that have been found to repeatedly harass people in videos. In many cases, it will “demonetize” channel, YouTube said, by turning off any revenue those videos would rmally generate for ir creators.

YouTube alrey demonetized Crowder’s channel.

new anti-harassment and violence policies also apply to public officials, though videos will still remain on site if y are parts of news stories, documentaries or or educational material.

YouTube is also rolling out a comment review tool to video owners that will, by default, hold back comments company’s algorithms have flagged as potentially inappropriate until creators have reviewed m. Video creators can turn off that setting if y want.