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YouTube Is Full of Easy-To-Find Neo-Nazi Propaganda (vice.com) 378

Posted by BeauHD from the software-aided dept.
An anonymous reader quotes an exclusive report from Motherboard: Through a software-aided investigation, Motherboard has found that while YouTube has managed to clamp down on Islamic extremists uploading propaganda, the video giant is still awash with videos supporting violent and established neo-Nazi organizations, even when, in some cases, users have reported the offending videos. Clips of neo-Nazi propaganda operations, hate-filled speeches, and extremists pushing for direct action have remained on the site for weeks, months, or years at a time. Arguably, many if not all of these videos may fall under YouTube's own policy on hate speech, which "refers to content that promotes violence against or has the primary purpose of inciting hatred against individuals or groups based on certain attributes," including race or ethnic origin, religion, and sexual orientation, according to the policy.

Motherboard built a tool to monitor YouTube and make a record of when the platform removed certain videos, and limited the clips to propaganda for established neo-Nazi and far-right terrorist organizations like Atomwaffen, rather than people in the so-called "alt-right." Most of the videos were discovered through simple YouTube searches of relevant organizations' names, or sometimes through the "recommended videos" sidebar after Motherboard had built up a browsing history of neo-Nazi material. For the sake of comparison, over a week-long period Motherboard also tracked pro-ISIS videos uploaded by the group's supporters and then distributed through a network of Telegram channels. Typically, YouTube removed these Islamic extremism videos in a matter of hours, including those that did not contain images of violence, but were instead speeches or other not directly violent content. But YouTube is playing catch up with neo-Nazi material. YouTube removed only two videos that Motherboard was monitoring: two identical clips of a speech from UK terrorist organization National Action.
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YouTube Is Full of Easy-To-Find Neo-Nazi Propaganda More

YouTube Is Full of Easy-To-Find Neo-Nazi Propaganda

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  • You can find anything on YouTube (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Darth Twon ( 2832799 ) on Friday March 09, 2018 @04:37PM (#56235583)
    Spoiler alert: that's the whole point.

  • Nazis have lost their meaning (Score:5, Insightful)

    by NaCh0 ( 6124 ) on Friday March 09, 2018 @04:43PM (#56235631) Homepage

    When so many on the left refer to anyone who disagrees with them as a Nazi the term has becoming meaningless. Maybe calling anyone with an R next to their name a nazi is a joke. I really don't know. It certainly won't end well at the polls when regular people vote for a 'correction' like they did in 2016, Brexit, and most recently Italy.

    Newsflash, Trump is nothing like an actual Nazi.

    • Maybe calling anyone with an R next to their name a nazi is a joke.

      OK, I'll bite. Find me a critical mass of people seriously calling Michele Bachmann or John McCain a nazi.

      Weev is a nazi. Richard Spencer is close enough to a nazi that the difference is sampling error. Paul Ryan is not a nazi. "So many on the left" (whoever that refers to) don't need to call people nazis just for having an "R" next to their name when there are enough actual nazis around.

      It certainly won't end well at the polls when regular people vote for a 'correction' like they did in 2016, Brexit, and most recently Italy.

      You forgot France, and probably ignored the rather important points that Obama was seen as an outsider in 2008, and that

    • It's unfortunate that the handling of domestic terrorists has become a partisan issue. The left has bomb throwing SJWs, the right has torch wielding Nazi thugs. In the face of their behavior - where they beat, maim, and kill innocent Americans - we're left paralyzed, unable to respond, unable to even quantify the problem in consistent language.

      In short, we're fucked.

    • When so many on the left

      Democrats aren't the left - they're just another variety of right-wing asshole, and as often as not are more extreme than the Republicans they claim to oppose.

  • Sounds better to me than alternative (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Friday March 09, 2018 @04:44PM (#56235637)

    What you rather happen:

    A) Real actual nazis spend all free time making YouTube videos.

    B) Angry nazis pushed off YouTube go outside and... do things.

    You all seem to be angling for the "lets drive Nazis to take action" camp which sounds exceedingly unwise. YouTube is the greatest honeypot/time sink ever built by mankind, you are all absolutely wasting the potential there by pushing anyone away from it.

  • Actual stats? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Mr307 ( 49185 ) on Friday March 09, 2018 @04:44PM (#56235645)

    I rtfa and there were no numbers, well they mentioned 4, but 4 doesn't seem like enough to make an 'awash'.

    All that being said, I prefer to have a forum where its easier to point out the extremists because they are dumb enough to tell everyone just how well dumb they are and everyone can see it and who associates and or agrees with them too. Rather than hiding it in the shadows and pretending its not there, then being all surprised later when get clubbed over the head by some event and start crying.

    But whatever, it appears that the blocking is mostly being used to silence anything deemed disagreeable anyways so the secondary effect of blocking some idiots just has to be accepted.

    • does that count?And not that he's a what I would call an upstanding citizen but it's funny that the only billionaire Fox News ever goes after is George Soros.

      Seriously, I'd like to see these jerks that use euphemisms for neo-nazi talking points called out on it more.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      First, go to YouTube and search for things like the "Jewish question" and you will find plenty of neo nazi material. Then try searching for things like AntiFa and you will find only more neo Nazis.

      It would be great if YouTube did actually throw up some counter views. They are out there... But the Nazis have been working hard to crowd them out, down vote them and are good at gaming the system.

      In addition, YouTube lacks almost any tools for blocking that stuff. There is YouTube Kids but that's about it, and e

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Z80a ( 971949 )

        Sadly blocking em just make em move to underground shit where they will rake on all the free victimization that was given.
        Probably the best way youtube could deal with it is to just recommend the best voted debunk video of that subject it can find.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          I agree that the best option would be promoting rebuttals, but as a general point blocking is very effective.

          The far right gets very upset when they are kicked off popular services because they know that no one reads gab.ai, no one watches Vimeo. They need to be on Twitter and YouTube and Facebook to get their message out of the bubble.

          That's why they have made YouTube a target.

          Normal people won't seek this stuff out, the neo Nazis need to get it on to mainstream platforms and near the top of search results

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Z80a ( 971949 )

            The actual far right as far i can see generally recruits more on places like chans, where they can post their cute infographics and chip people to their side little by little.
            And every time someone bans em from something, a brand new thing for the infographic to sell ideas like white genocide and the terrible control of the jews.
            If you want to stop em, you need to show their potential victims that they're full of shit.

          • You can say the same about the far left. The message is hard to find and get out through any platform.

            I have never run across Nazi content on YT, but the occasional Sarkeesian-type or Muslim rant does get promoted in a feed. Reporting them as extremism doesn't seem to work, I just ignore them.

            The problem with YT right now is the demonetization of random content. If enough people don't agree with the content the creator doesn't get the money YT collects. It makes YT a pretty penny, but when game reviews and

  • Just asking folks,

    Is there anything that YouTube does well?

    I haven't seen positive news on Slashdot in a long time.

    Request: Can you at least post some good news. Please..

    • I dunno. I find YouTube to be extremely tedious. There's just so much garbage, and it's not like text, where I can skim it quick and decide in 5 seconds or less whether it's a waste of my time or not.

    • Re:I am sick of the negative news/info/verbiage... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by mspohr ( 589790 ) on Friday March 09, 2018 @05:02PM (#56235759)

      YouTube makes it easy for anyone to post video about anything and for other people to find that video and watch it. It does a really good job at this.
      Of course, you are going to have all kinds of people posting all kinds of video. If you don't like it, don't watch it.
      You don't have to watch Nazi videos.

      • Totally agree, you can find anything on YouTube. I watch tons of brilliant university science lectures on YouTube, these are mostly public talks or bang up to date colloquia on things like genomics, virology, gravitational waves, astronomy, geology, cosmology, particle physics. I pay nothing to listen to the greatest teachers in the world, it is I would say the most wonderful thing on the Internet.

        YouTube for some is the great library of Alexandra delivered to your desktop, you don't have to watch knob head

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by wbr1 ( 2538558 )
      There are great channels on youtube. The platform itself sucks, but if you want exposure and/or revenue it is the main contender.

      Some good channels:

      Tested
      AVE
      Cody'sLab
      Applied Science
      Practical Engineering
      Scott Manley
      ElectroBOOM
      Periodic Videos
      NileRed
      NurdRage

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • YT only removes extreme right wing content (Score:5, Informative)

    by dicobalt ( 1536225 ) on Friday March 09, 2018 @04:50PM (#56235675)
    I've reported a number of radical leftist videos and creators who promote violence, hate, and bullying, none have been taken down.
  • I ran across some music I was looking for behind a "warning, dangerous and offensive" material warning a few weeks ago. I was looking for a Ukrainian nationalist song - my translation is 'Kalina in the Valley' from one of the historical Ukrainian nationalist groups. Yes, the song was sung by a group that collaborated with the Germans in WW2. And singing or humming it during the Soviet era would get you a one-way ticked to Siberia. Doing so now in Russia would result in the same fate. There may be a broad

  • What ever happened to defending unpopular speech (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Holi ( 250190 ) on Friday March 09, 2018 @04:59PM (#56235741)
    I don't get all this crap about wanting to remove these guys.

    1. I'd rather know what they are saying
    2. I'd rather know who they are
    3. I'm not cool with demands for censorship

    Now, I'm about as liberal as you can get, but censorship, government or otherwise always rubs me the wrong way. Maybe it has to do with the fact that my family has been here since the beginning and has served in every conflict our country has ever had. I believe in free speech, even for the idiots who spout white supremacy/nationalism crap.

    “What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.” Salman Rushdie

    • Keep your friends close, keep your enemies toaster. https://youtu.be/oLBojtg22nk [youtu.be]

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • They may be asshats, delusional, and crazy, but they have a right* to be on Youtube just as much as we do. This is a disturbing trend I've been seeing in my party of late. Just because the other guy is using "free speech" as a defense and talking point doesn't mean he's wrong or that we should start tearing it down. If we seriously only supported Hippy's right to free speech when it was convenient, then we're the exact sort of person the hippies were protesting again. If our views and political ideas and ci

    • Motherboard has found that while YouTube has managed to clamp down on Islamic extremists uploading propaganda

      That's because collective Western elite hivemind realizes that Islam is the only viable alternative ideology to dominating Western anti-ideology of liberalism.

      During the height of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, 40,000 volunteers from 80 countries (BBC reported it, with a map infographics - good luck finding it now) came to Iraq and Syria to fight for ideals of Islam, for the establishiment of Islam

  • I wonder: are these groups unwittingly, or knowingly the tools of the Dominionists?

    • Your monomania is showing.

      Also, you don't need to worry about the religious right any more. They did not support Trump in 2016, and Trump won anyway. Your problem now is the post-religious right. Enjoy.

  • Counter Point! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Templer421 ( 4988421 ) on Friday March 09, 2018 @05:09PM (#56235791)

    Let the Nazi Freak Flag Fly.

    Then we can publicly point out the wrongness AND contradictions of the true believers.

    Banning lends a bit of anti-hero legitimacy it does not deserve.

    TRUTH nails their crazy ass beliefs to the village square for all to see.

    Often TRUTH changes the minds of the young and easily mislead followers before they get very far down the path of wrongness.

    • Truth has been shown to be largely ineffective against deeply held beliefs like racism. It's a strong economy and worker solidarity that chips away at it. Also direct attacks at billionaire propaganda. Let's not forget the true end goal of racism: to make caste systems that divide the working class into easily managed groups who are always at each other's throats.

    • What's the point of banning Nazi videos?

      I can only guess that there are people who see "Nazism" as a growing and serious threat to the political order and that if YouTube Nazis are allowed to be on YouTube, they will achieve recruitment and thus further political success.

      I think this is a crazy argument, but it seems to be the basis of wanting to stop Nazis from being on YouTube. Personally I think that most people will see them as people who fetishize swastikas and violence and not find them appealing.

      I d

  • ... Through a software-aided investigation ...

  • It gets worse... (Score:3)

    by Locke2005 ( 849178 ) on Friday March 09, 2018 @05:16PM (#56235845)
    The grammar nazis are EVERYWHERE! Some of them even right here on slashdot!

  • Communist videos? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by JDAustin ( 468180 ) on Friday March 09, 2018 @05:22PM (#56235879)

    Yet communist/marxist propo vids don't trigger the SJWs like the nazi ones do even though the nazis were amateurs compared to the communists/maxists when comes genocide, repression and subjugation.

    • Mao Zedong and Joe Stalin are not, where not and never were Communists. They were fascist dictators who borrowed Marx's populist rhetoric.

      This is not to say communism works. It doesn't. You never get past the Dictatorship of the Proletariat because sooner or later some violent psycho like Mao or Stalin seizes power. The problem is the large transfer of ownership.

      We solved this problem with Democratic Socialism. Instead of mandating equality you regulate it. You skip the massive transfer of ownership
    • thats the problem with censorship its gone from censoring the tarriest to anyone who says anything someone else does not agree with.

    • even though the nazis were amateurs compared to the communists/maxists when comes genocide, repression and subjugation.

      Our capitalist benefactors are weathy with the current status quo, and have paid quite a large sum for that line you spout. Communism is their biggest threat after all. They have successfully copied the evil from corrupt dictatorships onto that threat, the prediction of communism from marx.

      Better dead than red, right?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Raenex ( 947668 )

        Communism is shit. It destroys wealth and people. Yes, there are rich capitalists. Yes, there is income inequality. And ordinary people are STILL better off than they ever were under communism. How many more millions do you want to kill before you decide the experiment is a failure?

        • You still don't understand what communism is. And you likely will never even bother, just parrot what you've heard. Its not the same as failed dictatorships. But of course you'll believe anyone that tells you they're communist or socialist, instantly and without question.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Vitriol+Angst ( 458300 )

      I was away from slashdot for couple months and now a top comment is basically complaining that NAZI videos aren't an issue because there are commie videos, and the commies killed more people back in the day.

      I'm not going to debate the difference. I'm just going to stand in awe at the lack of self awareness and eloquence is packed into one statement. I stand in awe that there were 4 other slashdot people with votes who agreed.

      "Hitler wasn't that bad people - because Stalin!" What the fuck, we got invaded by

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Raenex ( 947668 )

        I'm going to stand in awe at your own lack of self-awareness. Motherjones is a lefty rag. GooTube is overtaken by lefty social justice warriors. The attack on neo-Nazis, while ignoring even worse communism, shows what the true agenda is: neo-Nazis first, then the "alt-right", then the "alt-light", etc.

        It wasn't even subtle. "A UK anti-refugee protest and speech, which includes a participant holding a flag from National Action, a neo-Nazi group the UK government banned as a terrorist organization last year.

      • Read the rest of the posts here and carefully, understand them, this isn't about supporting nazis, this is about mislabelling people who disagree with practically anything to virtually any extent as Nazi.
        Censorship far beyond "just blocking Nazis"

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Uberbah ( 647458 )

      don't trigger the SJWs like the nazi ones do even though the nazis were amateurs compared to the communists/maxists when comes genocide, repression and subjugation

      Probably because that's a million megatons of horseshit capitalist propaganda. Communism/marxists freed hundreds of millions from elitist tyranny, colonialism, generation poverty. Oh, and they also defeated the actual Nazis and ended the holocaust.

      You're welcome.

  • Neo-Nazis have been around for about 70 years now. Many are retired or dead. 'Neo' means 'new' and they aren't new. Many living ones don't know or care much about the original Nazis, they just wanna hate. They need a new name.

    It's not sexy, but I'm happy calling them 'hate groups'. A universal term we can apply to white Americans, Moslems, Hindus and anyone else who prefers that lifestyle. Let's include loyal followers of Kim, Assad and other petty dictators around the world and in Washington DC.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Joviex ( 976416 )

      It's not sexy, but I'm happy calling them 'hate groups'. A universal term

      I call them assholes -- much simpler, and also universal.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by swell ( 195815 )

        - "I call them assholes"

        Lots of assholes don't hate- you haven't identified the specific group. And if you give them a 'sexy' name such as nazi, jihadist, IS, genocidists, yadda- you only create a rallying point for them. A boring name like 'hate group' may be less likely to draw more recruits.

  • Remember that time... (Score:4)

    by ElizabethGreene ( 1185405 ) on Friday March 09, 2018 @06:44PM (#56236285)

    Hey guys, remember that one time we had that crazy idea where people could say whatever they wanted and censorship was considered a bad thing?

    That was crazy, right?

  • How about not letting others invade our countries in the first place?

    I'm from Sweden which have had the most extreme immigration politics and where this together with Germany may be the hardest subject to discuss whatsoever but even here the people have always been more for less immigrants rather than more and with our current immigration politics the EU "worries" that we'll make it permanent.

    What is this EU / that person / organ and why it worries about it?

    Sweden has been the most pro-immigration in the EU

    • With you entirely, there's an endless supply of articles and videos out the with clear evidence that letting in millions of unchecked immigrants from horrific counties has resulted in massive crime increase, these people are simply different culturally. Not all of them, most though.

      In the old days, with tighter borders, much lower immigration, the "quality" people from these regions who were educated, with good values, would escape the riff Raff and leave to other countries. Now the riff Raff practically h

  • Youtube's excuse for brazen censorship (Score:3)

    by walterbyrd ( 182728 ) on Friday March 09, 2018 @07:26PM (#56236489)

    Why was Pat Condell's most recent video censored? Why was Mark Dice demonetized? Why have PragerU videos been censored? Why did Sargon of Akkad have his channel removed, and I could go on.

    None of those channels post anything close to "hate speech" and certainly never call for violence.

    Youtube censors any content that does fit google's far left agenda. Even the moderate left has there videos censored.

    Then they come up with this bullshit about armies of neo-Nazis posting hate speech to justify politically biased censorship.

    I can only hope that people are not stupid enough to believe that crap.

    • Why did Sargon of Akkad have his channel removed, and I could go on.

      Huh? Sargon is alive and well on Youtube - Here's the cite for a playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

      Might as well ban Jordan Peterson if Sargon gets dinged.

      Although you went over the top, there is no question that Youtube itself has been a little overboard lately, and some of the targets have been dinged unnecessarily. Weird thing is there isn't a rational basis for much of it. David Pakman was demonetized - with almost half a million followers - and it's hard to imagine anyone thinking of h

  • So? (Score:2)

    by epyT-R ( 613989 )

    There's tons of propaganda from all sorts on youtube. The trick is to realize it's propaganda and take it with large chunks of salt. At the very least, think for yourself and ask "Do they make any valid arguments, and if so, what parts are still bullshit?" and compare it with other events and ideas you have read/seen/experienced.

    Censorship just lends legitimacy to it in the eyes of uninformed viewers. There's also simple Streisand effect. People want to see what they're not allowed to. This is especially p

  • The content of Youtube and its regulation/filtering/censorship, like most of US mainstream media, reflects mainstream US culture. To outside observers, the USA has a very wide gap between espoused values (free speech, equality, etc.) and practised values (political prisoners, overt systemic racism, etc.). The sooner mainstream US culture comes out of denial and faces its problems, the better: It has the potential to be a great democracy and shining beacon of humane values and civil society to the rest of th
  • If it is Islamic propaganda it is terrorism, if it is Nazi propaganda it is free speech. That is what happens when folks are blind on one eye only.

  • Either we live in a free state or we do not.

    In the meantime, it makes sense to expose people to a range of political thought. If they drift toward the extremes, it means that the middle is failing, not that the extremes are somehow inherently "seductive" or "infectious."

    Neo-Nazism, after all, is in the middle of the political spectrum, just turned up to 11.

    On the Left you have egalitarians who believe that society "progresses" from a natural state to a Utopia based on equality; on the Right you have people

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