Recommended by Neo-Nazis, Banned from Entire Countries, Still on YouTube
How YouTube distributes (and profits from) white supremacist propaganda.
Richard Spencer is a right-wing extremist who’s been described as a “white supremacist” and a “neo-Nazi.” He’s repeated Nazi propaganda and given Nazi salutes. He insists that he’s “just” an “alt-right activist” and “identitarian” (a euphemism for white nationalism). He’s been caught on tape using racist and antisemitic slurs. He’s been banned from a number of platforms including Facebook, GoFundMe, and Patreon. He’s currently banned from 26 countries in the European Union.
He’s also still on YouTube. Spencer is currently “President and Creative Director” of the “National Policy Institute,” a white nationalist think tank.
Studies have shown that radicalization isn’t an overnight process, but involves a process of deepening engagements. This implies that people who become radicalized don’t start out consuming the most extreme content, but follow a pathway that starts out less extreme and escalates over time.
Which brings us to this tweet by Richard Spencer:
Spencer is referring to four people: Milo Yiannopoulos, “Sargon of Akkad” (aka Carl Benjamin), Lauren Southern, and Gavin McInnes. He considers them “great entry points” to the white nationalist movement. They don’t openly identify as white nationalists or white supremacists, but introduce people to the ideology and prepare them for further radicalization. It turns out that all four of these people are still on YouTube, and most of them are monetizing their presence on YouTube. YouTube takes a cut, as well.
The following is a brief history of the four people endorsed by Spencer.
Milo Yiannopoulos
Yiannopoulos is a former Breitbart editor and self-described “professional troll.” He rose to prominence in 2014 due to his involvement in Gamergate, a coordinated campaign of harassment that primarily targeted women and resulted in an uncountable number of death threats.
He proved too extreme even for Breitbart, an extremist website that publishes articles sympathetic to white nationalist organizations, and resigned in 2017 after numerous employees threatened to quit if he was not fired. Simon & Schuster decided not to publish his book. Ben Shapiro, considered a “pathway to radicalization” himself, has said that Milo holds a “position of prominence” in the alt-right, a “movement shot through with racism and anti-Semitism”. He was banned from Twitter in 2016 after leading a campaign of harassment against actress Leslie Jones. He was banned from Facebook in 2019 as part of a purge of “individuals or organizations that promote or engage in violence and hate.” He was banned from Venmo and PayPal after engaging in Nazi-related harassment of a journalist. He lasted a single day on Patreon before being banned. He was even prevented from entering Australia in 2019 because Australian immigration officers said he could “incite discord in the Australian community or in a segment of that community.”
But he’s welcome on YouTube. He has a verified account, 857,000 subscribers, and over 136 million views of his videos. He’s also still making money from YouTube. As of November of 2019, advertisements still run on his videos, making money for both Yiannopoulos and YouTube.
Carl Benjamin
Carl Benjamin, aka “Sargon of Akkad,” is a far-right British anti-feminist, conspiracy theorist, and anti-immigrant extremist. Like Yiannopoulos, Benjamin was involved in Gamergate, the organized campaign of harassment against women. He had a ran a failed political campaign as a member of the far-right, anti-immigrant UKIP party, some of whose members have connections to the UK’s fascist National Front party. Benjamin was banned from Twitter in 2017 for violating their policies on targeted abuse. He was banned from Patreon in 2018 because he used “racial and homophobic slurs to degrade another individual.”
In spite of all that he’s still on YouTube with a verified account, over 969,000 subscribers, and over 300 million video views. Benjamin was demonetized by YouTube in May of 2019 for making rape comments directed at a British Member of Parliament. Although he doesn’t make money from advertising, he provides a number of links that allow viewers to send him money or buy his merchandise. Ironically, while Benjamin is the only one of these four YouTubers to be demonetized by YouTube, he’s also the only one who hasn’t been banned from an entire country.
Lauren Southern
Lauren Southern is a far-right activist who’s been described as a “white nationalist.” She formerly worked for The Rebel Media, an organization that’s been accused of violating Canada’s hate speech law by “promoting hatred of the Muslim community through hate propaganda.” In March of 2018, she was denied entry to the UK after being questioned in accordance with the UK’s Terrorism Act. The UK Border Force determined that her planned activities posed “a serious threat to the fundamental interests of society and are likely to incite tensions between local communities in the United Kingdom.” The Southern Poverty Law center says that “her anti-feminist, xenophobic, Islamophobic diatribes tiptoe at the precipice of outright white nationalism…” She’s helped to spread the “white genocide” conspiracy theory that’s popular with white supremacists. She was banned from Patreon in 2017 for “raising funds in order to take part in activities that are likely to cause loss of life.”
Yet, she’s still on YouTube, earning money both for herself and for YouTube. She has a verified account, over 700,000 subscribers, and her videos have over 59 million views.
Gavin McInnes
McInnes is the co-founder of the FBI-designated extremist group The Proud Boys. He openly admits to being an Islamophobe. In 2018, McInnes was denied entry to Australia because “he was judged to be of bad character.” He was apparently too bigoted even for Glenn Beck’s website The Blaze, a website that according to Media Matters has published white supremacist rhetoric. In 2018 he was banned from Facebook (for violating policies against “hate speech speech and hate organizations”) and Twitter (for violating their policy “prohibiting violent extremist groups”).
But he’s still on YouTube. McInnes has 356,000 subscribers and his videos have over 42 million views. He actually was briefly banned by YouTube in 2018… for copyright violation. He was reinstated three days later. As of November of 2019, YouTube allows McInnes to run advertisements on his videos, the proceeds of which are split between McInnes and YouTube.
What Does This Mean?
YouTube is hosting content that’s produced by people that a right-wing extremist endorses as being “great entry points” to the white nationalist movement. YouTube often recommends this content to viewers. Not only is YouTube enabling and funding the radicalization of their audience, they’re profiting from it. In cases where YouTube isn’t profiting from radicalizing content, they’re subsidizing it by providing a technology platform, network bandwidth, and an audience, all free of charge.
This is YouTube’s mission:
Our mission is to give everyone a voice and show them the world. We believe that everyone deserves to have a voice, and that the world is a better place when we listen, share and build community through our stories.
YouTube is certainly giving “everyone a voice.” The problem is that not everyone “deserves to have a voice,” not when that voice is harmful (and sometimes deadly) to others. The world is not “a better place” when we allow extremists to use our technology to radicalize previously innocent people.
Profiting from or subsidizing extremist content is unethical, immoral, and is causing real harm. To provide a platform for people that countries have deemed too dangerous to be allowed entry is indefensible. It’s time for YouTube to do better.
