YOUTUBE is facing a social media firestorm after refusing to label a video of a shocking racist tirade as hate speech.
The video platform took down the clip this week in which hosts of the Louder with Crowder show made sick comments about black farmers.
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However, rather than violating the site’s rules on hate speech, the footage was removed because it breached COVID-19 misinformation policies.
“Our hate speech policy prohibits content promoting hatred against groups based on their race,” a YouTube spokesperson told OneZero.
“While offensive, this video from the Steven Crowder channel does not violate this policy.”
During the grotesque segment, host Steven Crowder and a number of guests discussed aid rolled out in US President Joe Biden’s recent COVID-relief bill.
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More than $5billion was promised to black and other minority farmers, in part to make up for decades of exclusion from US agricultural programmes.
Republican senators have denounced the move as “unconstitutional” and “outrageous”.
Crowder, an American-Canadian political commentator with 5million YouTube subscribers, took issue with the legislation.
“I don’t know where you find this many farmers of colour,” he said. “But they did.”
Crowder and his co-hosts went on to make multiple hideous comments about black people and performed grotesque caricatures.
After running a news clip describing the bill, Crowder launched into an impression of a black person pretending to be a farmer to receive aid.
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“I’ma buy a plow, man!” he squealed. “I’m the president of plowing that a**.”
Co-host Dave Landau chimed in with a sickening joke about the slave trade.
“I thought the last thing they would want to do is be farmers – wasn’t that a big problem for hundreds of years?”
Crowder also implied that the soil in black communities would be contaminated with “meth”.
YouTube’s policy on hate speech states that it removes content “promoting violence or hatred” against individuals or groups based on a number of attributes, including race.
The company has previously promised to take action on hate speech that comes “right up to the line”, as well.
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YouTube has been blasted throughout this week by social media users over its tepid stance on Crowder’s comments.
One Twitter user wrote: “According to @YouTube: Steven Crowder is allowed to do racist impressions, peddle racist stereotypes, and demean an entire group of people as long as he doesn’t explicitly say he ‘hates’ them.
“YouTube has never had any intention of regulating hate speech.”
Another tweeted: “Today seems like a pretty good day for @YouTube to do something (or anything?) about Crowder and creators like him who skirt their harassment and hate speech policies.”
It’s not the first time that Crowder’s comments have landed him in hot water.
YouTube has previously expunged the internet star’s page of other videos that violated its policies.
He was also removed from the YouTube Partner program for a year, meaning he could not monetise his videos.
Crowder’s Partner status was reinstated last year.
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In other news, YouTube recently added a new type of video called a “Clip” that last anywhere from five to 60 seconds.
Here’s how to create a channel on YouTube.
And check out the recently-added YouTube feature Chapters.
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
