YouTube has removed the channel of the Nation of Islam, the organization led by notorious anti-Semitic demagogue Louis Farrakhan.
YouTube finally took down the channel on October 2, citing its policies against hate speech, the Jewish Journal reported.
“We have strict policies prohibiting hate speech on YouTube, and terminate any channel that repeatedly or egregiously violates those policies,” said a statement from the video sharing platform.
“After updating our guidelines last year to better address content that spreads hateful conspiracy theories, we saw a 5x spike in video removals and have terminated over 25,000 channels for violating our hate speech policies,” the statement said.
Earlier this year, YouTube removed the channels of white supremacists Richard Spencer and David Duke.
The NOI channel was removed for advancing a claim that members of a protected group are part of an evil conspiracy theory, the report said.
Farrakhan has in the past praised Hitler, described Jews as “termites,” members of the “Synagogue of Satan” and claimed Jesus called Jews “the children of the devil.”
The American Jewish Congress praised YouTube for removing NOI’s channel, saying it was used “as a megaphone for his anti-Semitic and homophobic outbursts.”
We applaud @Youtube for removing the channel of the Nation of Islam, the organization led by Louis Farrakhan, who for far too long has used the platform as a megaphone for his antisemitic and homophobic outbursts.
— American Jewish Committee (@AJCGlobal) October 7, 2020
Recent months saw a series of celebrities, including NFL star DeSean Jackson, TV host Nick Cannon, and rapper Ice Cube, praising Farrakhan and defending his vitriol.
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