YouTube cracks down on hateful videos just days after IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad's warning to digital platforms

YouTube has tightened its policies around hateful videos on its platform just days after IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad warned against the misuse of digital platforms in India. In an attempt to protect the platform from being used to incite hatred, harassment, discrimination and violence, YouTube has now taken a very strong stance against supremacist content. YouTube said this would include videos that promote or glorify Nazi ideology. This is what YouTube has to say in its official blog post:

"Today, 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 said in a blog post.

The latest move assumes importance as digital platforms and social media companies have come under increased global scrutiny on pressing issues like hate content, fake news and data privacy. India has also taken a tough stance on these burning issues.

Earlier this week, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had warned that misuse of digital platforms will not be tolerated in India. India's IT Ministry has already started working on tightening policies for social media and Internet companies.

YouTube said that it has been investing in policies, resources and products needed to safeguard the YouTube community from hateful videos.

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"In 2017, we introduced a tougher stance towards videos with supremacist content, including limiting recommendations and features like comments and the ability to share the video," it said, adding that the step dramatically reduced views to these videos, on average 80 per cent.

YouTube said it will implement new policies starting Thursday. However, it will take time for the systems to fully ramp up. YouTube will eventually increase the coverage over the next several months.

"We recognize some of this content has value to researchers and NGOs looking to understand hate in order to combat it, and we are exploring options to make it available to them in the future. And as always, context matters, so some videos could remain up because they discuss topics like pending legislation, aim to condemn or expose hate, or provide analysis of current events," it added.

YouTube noted it is critical that the monetisation systems reward trusted creators who add value to the platform.

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"We have longstanding advertiser-friendly guidelines that prohibit ads from running on videos that include hateful content and we enforce these rigorously...In the case of hate speech, we are strengthening enforcement of our existing YouTube partner program policies," it added.

According to YouTube, channels that repeatedly brush up against its hate speech policies will be suspended from YouTube's Partner program. Meaning, they cannot run Paid ads on their channel or use other monetisation features like SuperChat.

(With agency inputs)