Hate Speech on Live Testing of "Super Cats" on YouTube

During the live broadcast, which, according to YouTube, was removed by Mr. Ralph, a user paid two pounds sterling at the following writing: "How do you get a Jewish girl number? Roll up his sleeve. Another viewer paid $ 5 and wrote, "If you want to know if the Synagogue shootout was a false flag, check out Larry's life insurance policies on those dead Jews."

On Friday, YouTube announced Friday it has permanently removed Ralph's "Ralph Retort" channel from his platform for breaking the rules and violating terms of use.

Mr. Ralph, whose channel had 22,500 subscribers, is one of the far right celebrities on YouTube who used the Super Chat feature to make money. The topics covered by these users can range from events such as the Pittsburgh tragedy to the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, media criticism and internal debate among community members. from the far right online.

According to an analysis conducted for The Wall Street Journal, most Super Chats generate a few hundred dollars in revenue, according to YouTube, usually collecting 30% of revenue, according to sources close to the subject.

YouTube spokesperson for Alphabet Inc., a Google-owned company, said the company was giving a charity the proceeds of all Super Cats discussions violating its hate speech policy.

"Hate speech and content that promotes violence are banned on YouTube," said the spokesperson. "We have also been working in recent months to refine our policy on access to monetization features. While this work is underway, we pledge to continue to improve the fight against online hate. "

Like other popular social media platforms, YouTube has been striving to draw the line between fighting hate speech and allowing freedom of expression. The company relies on a sprawling ecosystem of "creators" to provide a constant stream of content to the world's most popular video site, where they have access to specific benefits and resources on the platform.

Super Chat was launched last year to further encourage these creators to produce more content and attract more viewers. Paid comments are the subject of special treatment: the video host often reads the comment aloud on the radio and is pinned to the top of the fast moving thread. The more a paycheck, the longer the comment stays displayed at the top of the dialog box.

While the Super Chat feature is available for the vast collection of YouTube video celebrities and was created primarily to appeal to gamers, it has not gained the same power or scale among these groups as in the extreme crowd. right, according to an analysis of Storyful, a social media intelligence company owned by News Corp, the Journal's parent company.

Racist comments are not uncommon. According to the researchers, it is equally disturbing to note that comments remain in YouTube's guidelines in order to be avoided through the use of coded language instead of animated topics and insults. For example, some commentators use the term "basketball Americans" rather than insults against African Americans and "population replacement" when speaking of plots about the white genocide. Some users spell out certain words with numbers to prevent detection by the YouTube software.

For example, many payments amount to $ 14.88 – number 1488 is often used as a shorthand for white supremacists to describe their ideology, and associated merchandise is often sold at $ 14.88.

"What they do is convey these ideas in another way," said one researcher. The researcher was targeted by white supremacy and other members of the far right fringes.

After an article published in May by BuzzFeed on the popularity of Super Cats among white nationalists and other extreme right-wing personalities, YouTube has announced that it has started using a machine-learning technology that detects hateful comments. suspend. The company does not disclose how much she earns in Super Chats in general.

When YouTube temporarily suspends a channel due to a violation, this creator often appears as a guest on the chain of a like – minded person until the time is up. ban be lifted. This problem for YouTube, said this researcher, is that "YouTube will continually try to apply a technological solution to a social problem."

Mr. Ralph did not respond to a request for comment. On Thursday night, after the newspaper approached YouTube about issues related to this article, Mr. Ralph opened a new live feed by reading what he said was a Super Chat submitted earlier in the day, in which the viewer wrote "Abort Hebrew babies". The feed continued for more than 20 minutes before being shut down for violating YouTube's policy on hate speech, according to a notice posted on its website.

Twitter

Account. Mr. Ralph then changed channels and continued for several minutes before it was also closed.

The St. Jude Children's Research Hospital organized this week the return of donations collected in September during a live broadcast of Ralph, dubbed "super cat for good", even though comments were filled with antisemitic comments and that animators even Holocaust. The money totaled about $ 26,000. Many on Twitter complained Friday to be given back their donations. They also attacked the newspaper and members of its staff, accusing the news agency of the return of the money.

When contacted earlier in the week, St. Jude said he was aware of the discussions and was taking steps to cancel donations. On Friday, a spokesman said: "We had no plans to receive or accept the funds associated with the live broadcast."

Following questions from the Journal, YouTube also recorded the live broadcast of the far-right personality Jean-François Gariépy, aired after the shooting in Pittsburgh, and included a number of anti-Semitic and racist comments in the paid Super Cats .

Mr. Gariépy stated that his channel did not allow hate speech and that he was trying to suppress Super Cats who "are hateful or call for violence". He said his channel had banned thousands of viewers from his channel for repeatedly breaking this policy. .

Mr. Gariépy, who calls himself a white nationalist, said he did not see any problem with people quoting 14/88 or Hitler mentioning that such comments "are intended to encourage people to acquire better historical understanding of Germany during the first half of the year. the century. "He added that it would be easy for YouTube to ban donations of an equivalent amount" they differ from my interpretation. "

The live broadcast of Mr. Gariépy following Pittsburgh generated a turnover of $ 244, according to the analysis of Storyful.

Write to Yoree Koh at [email protected]

Corrections & Amplifications
According to YouTube, Ethan Ralph deleted a video that he had published about a shooting in a Pittsburgh synagogue. An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that YouTube had deleted the video. (November 2, 2018)