In the wake of an advertiser freeze by many companies, Alphabet Inc’s Youtube is cracking down on hateful content and has banned white nationalists: Richard Spencer, Jared Taylor, Stefan Molyneux, and David Duke to name a few. Youtube came to the conclusion to ban hateful content after Starbucks and Coca-Cola came out with statements regarding their advertisements freezing not only on Youtube but all social media platforms.
Molyneux came out on Twitter, calling this a “highly coordinated effort to silence us” and calls upon himself, along with others like him, to promote “peaceful, logical, and philosophical solutions to social differences.”
Spencer, Taylor, Molyneux, and Duke have been notorious for their far-right ideologies and behavior. Spencer and Molyneux consider themselves philosophers. Molyneux has his own online philosophy show while Spencer prefers public speaking. David Duke was a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and former far-right politician. Taylor is an editor for an online far-right magazine called American Renaissance.
Youtube has strict guidelines that prohibit its users from encouraging violence or inciting hatred against others. If it is someone’s first violation, then they are issued a warning with no penalty, however, if it is not someone’s first time they will get three strikes for each post that violates the policy until their channel is permanently terminated.
Hate speech has been a curse since social media’s conception, however, there are baby steps taking place in order to prevent hateful content on the web. As companies are starting to realize they’re brand names carry weight with its consumers, their plan to freeze their advertisements goes to show that at least they are aware of the problem. And knowing is half the battle.
Alphabet Inc’s revenue in advertisements of 2009 was $22.89 billion and as of 2019, they hit $134.81 billion and have been on a steady incline ever since 2009.
