YouTube is the latest social media site to take a stand against hate speech.
The video platform banned several well-known white supremacist channels, including those belonging to Richard Spencer, David Duke and Stefan Molyneux.
The Google-owned site updated its policy last year to include a ban on videos ‘alleging that a group is superior in order to justify discrimination’ and all three individuals were found to have violated the rule.
Altogether YouTube has deleted six channels, including Spencer’s National Policy Institute/Radix Journal and Molyneux’s AmRen Podcast.
YouTube is the second social media platform to ban hate from its site Monday, as Reddit shutdown a forum for supports of Donald Trump and Twitch temporarily banned the president’s channel over its hateful content policy.
YouTube banned several well-known white supremacist channels, including those belonging to Richard Spencer (pictured), David Duke and Stefan Molyneux. Spencer’s National Policy Institute has been said to be a white supremacist think tank for those in the alt-right
A YouTube spokesperson said in a statement told The Verge: ‘We have strict policies prohibiting hate speech on YouTube, and terminate any channel that repeatedly or egregiously violates those policies.’
DailyMail.com has reached out to YouTube for comment and has yet to receive a response.
All three of the individuals have been recognized for their radical right, neo-Nazi views.
Duke is a longtime Ku Klux Klan leader and is an outspoken Holocaust denier who won election to Louisiana’s House of Representatives, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
David Duke (left) is a longtime Ku Klux Klan leader and is an outspoken Holocaust denier who won election to Louisiana’s House of Representatives. Stefan Molyneux (right) is a Canadian YouTuber who identifies as far-right and speaks of white nationalism during his podcasts
Spencer, who is identified as a new-Nazi with having anti-Semitic views and was an activist on behalf of the alt-right movement in 2017 and 2017.
His channel, Spencer’s National Policy Institute, has been said to be a white supremacist think tank for those in the alt-right.
His channel was AmRen Podcast and linked to the white supremacist publication.
YouTube starting banning such channels and content from the platform in 2019.
The firm said it was taking further steps to eliminate videos that promote violence and extremism, such as Nazi glorification and white supremacy.
It also removed hoax videos that attempt to debunk known tragedies, like the Sandy Hook shooting and the Holocaust.
Reddit said Monday that it had shut down a forum for supporters of Donald Trump amid an overhaul of its content policies. Reddit said The_Donald community was banned for violating three of the site’s rules
Also on Monday, Twitch said it had temporarily banned Trump’s channel over its hateful conduct policy. The notification above pops up in the search for Trump’s channel
‘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,’ the company wrote in 2019 post on its site.
YouTube removing a number of white supremacist channels from the platform comes on the same day Twitch temporarily banned President Donald and Reddit shutdown a forum of supporters for the president.
The list included The_Donald and the left-wing forum ChapoTrapHouse. The_Donald forum housed more than 790,000 users who share content in support of Trump. The ChapoTrapHouse has more than 160,000 users.
‘All communities on Reddit must abide by our content policy in good faith. We banned The_Donald because it has not done so, despite every opportunity,’ Chief executive Steve Huffman said in a post on the site.
Twitch said it had temporarily banned Trump’s channel over its hateful conduct policy.
‘Hateful conduct is not allowed on Twitch. In line with our policies, President Trump’s channel has been issued a temporary suspension from Twitch for comments made on stream, and the offending content has been removed,’ a Twitch spokeswoman said,
One of the streams identified by the spokeswoman was a rebroadcast of a 2016 Trump rally in which the president said Mexico was sending rapists to the US.