Washington (AFP)

The Youtube video sharing site announced on Wednesday the intensification of its fight against hate content by banning videos advocating discrimination or segregation, such as sites glorifying Nazism.

"We specifically prohibit videos that affirm the superiority of a group in order to justify discrimination, segregation or exclusion based on criteria such as age, gender, race, caste, religion, orientation "An article published on the blog of the subsidiary of Google.

These new rules come into effect on Wednesday but "it will take time for our systems to upgrade and we will gradually expand coverage in the coming months".

"That would include, for example, videos that promote or glorify the Nazi ideology, which is inherently discriminatory," the blog said, adding that Youtube would also remove the contents "denying the existence of violent events whose reality is proven, such as the Holocaust or the shooting of Sandy Hook elementary school ", adds the blog.

Like Facebook or Twitter, Youtube is criticized for not doing enough to quickly remove content that promotes hatred, violence or peddling theories of conspiracy, whose audience has exploded through the advent of networks social.

The killings in March at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, perpetrated by a white supremacist, once again brought the subject to the fore. The shooter broadcasted the attack live on Facebook.

Shortly after the scandal of the broadcast of this massacre, the first social network in the world launched in early May a new offensive against promoters of extremist, violent, anti-Semitic, racist or conspiracy speeches, especially against the American Louis Farrakhan, leader of the 'Nation of Islam' organization.

Facebook has also banned Alex Jones, founder of the "Infowars" site, one of the most prominent proponents of a conspiracy theory that accuses children of Sandy Hook shot in 2012 to be paid actors and harassing parents of small victims.

- Bias, search -

While, in general, these social media ads are well received by the majority of the public, they also attract criticism, not only from those targeted but also from opponents of any form of censorship who believe that "freedom of expression" , a right protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, is total and is thus flouted.

A federal judge rejected this interpretation in 2018, saying the article did not concern private companies.

More broadly, US conservatives, led by President Donald Trump, blame social media for leaning left and clamping down on their publications.

According to Youtube, "the context is important, so some videos could stay online because they discuss topics such as legislation being passed, condemning or denouncing hatred, or providing an analysis of news. "

Youtube also announced Wednesday that the restrictions imposed in January in the United States on content that does not quite cross the red line but is nevertheless problematic will be extended to other countries in the year 2019.

These brakes have reduced by 50% the number of views of this type of content, says the blog.

At the same time, YouTube will encourage the viewing of verified and serious content in its recommendations - by going back in the column on the right of the screen - to people who have viewed content deemed problematic.

As for historians and other researchers who fear losing a very valuable source of documents, Youtube wants to reassure them.

"However, we recognize that such content may be valuable to researchers or NGOs who want to understand hatred to better combat it," said YouTube, saying it is exploring options for making content available.

? 2019 AFP