The video sharing and streaming service YouTube announced plans on Wednesday to get rid of thousands of videos and channels promoting "white supremacy and hate"; the move was made "to prevent extremism and hate speech", the company said.
"Today, we're taking another step in our hate speech policy by specifically prohibiting videos alleging that a group is superior in order to justify discrimination, segregation or exclusion based on qualities like age, gender, race, caste, religion, sexual orientation or veteran status," YouTube said.
The service stressed that it was its "responsibility to protect that, and prevent our platform from being used to incite hatred, harassment, discrimination and violence."
YouTube will also be expanding to the rest of the world a policy initiated in the United States on 1 January to limit borderline content and harmful misinformation, such as videos promoting a phony miracle cure for a serious illness, or claiming the earth is flat.
This comes after in March another tech giant Facebook announced a ban on "praise, support and representation of white nationalism and white separatism," which the social network company said it start enforcing in April. According to Facebook, these concepts are "deeply linked to organised hate groups and have no place" on its services.