The World Jewish Congress is accusing the German unit of YouTube of failing to stop neo-Nazis from using the online video channel to distribute thousands of anti-Semitic tracks.
The WJC sent Philipp Justus, the managing director of the German unit of YouTube parent company Google, a letter demanding more decisive action to take down illegal material praising the Holocaust and Adolf Hitler.
“Why is it that Google steadfastly refuses to take action against the proliferation of racist and anti-Semitic material on its platforms?” Executive Vice President Robert Singer of the New York-based WJC writes. “Do you really believe that songs glorifying, or inciting to, the mass murder of Jews fall under freedom of speech?”
Singer highlights one song in particular, “In Belsen” by far-right group Kommando Freisler, which he said was “widely available” on YouTube despite the fact that it had been banned in Germany and the band members behind it given suspended jail terms in 2009 for inciting racial hatred.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DEt9yno60k
A spokesman for YouTube’s German unit says that the company has “clear guidelines to ban hate speech against certain groups or content that incites racial hatred.”
— AFP
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