YouTube finally bans white supremacist content

YouTube has finally banned white supremacist content from its platform. Or, at least the popular video-sharing site says it has. 

The company announced a host of policy changes in a Wednesday morning blog post that aim to address the vitriolic cesspool that its platform has become. And sure, this move is better late than never. The flip side of that coin, however, is too little too late. 

“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,” reads the blog post. 

Included in that broad swath of now-banned content, YouTube notes, are videos denying the Holocaust or the Sandy Hook shooting. 

Interestingly, this announcement comes at the same time the company is facing sustained criticism for its handling of a targeted harassment campaign against a journalist, and a New York Times investigation into the curation and, in effect, sexualization of children’s videos by YouTube’s algorithm.  

In other words, YouTube knows it has a lot of problems on its hands. Perhaps it thought banning outright Nazi videos was an easy place to start cleaning up its image?

If so, we are forced to wonder why the company waited until its hand was forced.