YouTube had to disable chat on livestream of congressional hearing on white nationalism, due to racist, anti-Semitic comments

The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing Tuesday on the rise of white nationalism, prompted by last month's shootings at two New Zealand mosques that left at least 50 people dead.

YouTube livestreamed the hearing, but had to disable the chat feature after about 30 minutes due to an influx of racist and anti-Semitic comments, The Associated Press reports. Executives from Google and Facebook were asked by lawmakers how their companies are working to keep hate crimes from spreading; the New Zealand gunman livestreamed his attack and posted a racist manifesto. "There is no place for terrorism or hate on Facebook," the company's director of public policy, Neil Potts, said. "We remove any content that incites violence."

In late March, Facebook announced it was banning white nationalism and white separatism from the social media site, and Potts said the company is always searching for people with ties to hate groups so they can be kicked off.

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