YouTube introduces new policies to crack down on hateful content

YouTube has announced new policies it says will result in more hateful content being removed from its platform.

In a blog post on Wednesday, the company said it's updating its hate speech policies to specifically ban "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." As an example, any videos that "promote or glorify Nazi ideology" will now be removed, YouTube says.

Additionally, YouTube will remove videos denying the occurrence of "well-documented violent events," such as the Holocaust or the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. For videos that come "close" to violating these policies, YouTube says its system will "include more videos from authoritative sources" in the "watch next" panel. The new policies are expected to result in the removal of "thousands" of videos, The New York Times reports.

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These updates come as YouTube has received some criticism for a decision on Tuesday not to take action against conservative commentator Steven Crowder for making racist and homophobic remarks about Vox host Carlos Maza in numerous videos, such as calling him an "angry little queer" and a "gay Mexican." YouTube in explaining its decision said that Crowder's videos "don't violate our policies," despite containing "language that was clearly hurtful." YouTube also said that "opinions can be deeply offensive, but if they don’t violate our policies, they'll remain on our site."