Racist coments on Yutube

amandstu

I prefer not to give a link (in any case I imagine there are countless other instances) but I wonder what is the situation regarding obviously racist comments on international websites like Youtube.

When I come across such verbiage I would class it as cultural pollution even though it doesn't affect me personally.

I realise there can be a multitude of grey areas but there should also be some mechanism for removing content I would have thought.

What would be the situation if a "third" party just wanted Youtube ,say to take down a user comment that the "target" had obviously just ignored or put up with and was just sitting on the internet years after the event like a bad smell?

In case anyone thinks I might have been oversensitive the comment reads "typical racial epithet c*nt"

Mikros

Generally these sites operate under US law as they are based there. Because of their 1st amendment constitutional protection for free speech a different standard of proof is required before they will act. However a lot of sites implement rules against hate speech and abusive content and allow such posts to be flagged for review and possible removal. YouTube have a hate speech policy and allow you to report content:

YouTube wrote:

We encourage free speech and try to defend your right to express unpopular points of view, but we don't permit hate speech.

Hate speech refers to content that promotes violence or hatred against individuals or groups based on certain attributes, such as:

Race or ethnic origin
Religion
Disability
Gender
Age
Veteran status
Sexual orientation/gender identity

Keep in mind that not everything that is mean or insulting is considered hate speech. If you're upset by content that a specific person is posting, you may wish to consider blocking the user.

However, if you feel that content violates our hate speech policy, report it to YouTube for review in one of the following ways:

Flag the video: You can report hateful content by flagging the video.
File an abuse report: If you have found multiple videos, comments or a user's entire account that you wish to report, please visit our reporting tool, where you will be able to submit a more detailed report.

My advise - ignore it and move on because going on a one man mission to clean up the internet is going to end in despair.

Frynge

Mikros wrote: »

My advise - ignore it and move on because going on a one man mission to clean up the internet is going to end in despair.

that actually sounds like something dave gorman could make a show from.

Holsten

Report it.

Then again there will be hundreds more comments like that every minute on that site.

Manach

My understanding, building on what the poster Mikros mentioned, is that the option to remove videos themselves is available if such speech is held to be so and the requesting authority is a recognise government agency. However this opens another issue on free speech and the race to the standards of the most regressive regime, which is another topic.