YouTube decided to leave some extremist content online despite public outrage

YouTube has, for quite a while, been quite the source for neo-Nazi and white nationalist content. People have complained and reported videos but Google’s never taken a concrete step against such content. However, since the recent horrifying massacre in a Christchurch mosque in New Zealand, Youtube was repeatedly questioned on why and how such content managed to survive on the platform. While YouTube said it was doing enough to control the spread of these videos, a recent report by Motherboard reveals that even days later, some extremist content still remains on the platform. Now either these videos have gone undetected by YouTube, have been allowed to stay up by the platform, or have been uploaded recently. [caption id=“attachment_6086631” align=“alignnone” width=“1024”] Representational image. Image: Reuters[/caption] Motherboard apparently reached out to YouTube with the issue, to which it said that the platform has “demonetized the videos, placed them behind a content warning, removed some features such as likes and comments, and removed them from recommendations”, but it decided to leave the videos online. Reportedly, a simple search will allow you to find these videos on YouTube right now. Motherboard found that “…everything from the propaganda of neo-Nazi organizations and well known white nationalist-podcasts to the genocidal writings of the far-right continue to live undisturbed on the popular video platform”. This report comes just a day after a Bloomberg  report which found that YouTube executives ignored warnings of toxic videos on the platform and let them run rampant. The report claims that the executives were more concerned with viewer engagement than on stopping hateful, extremist or conspiracy-related content.