YouTube has banned some British history teachers from its service for uploading archive footage of Adolf Hitler on their educational channels, as they were allegedly in violation of new guidelines prohibiting the promotion of hate speech, The Guardian reported.
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As the Google-owned video-hosting platform announced earlier this week that it would not allow content glorifying the Nazis to be uploaded, it has also removed material aimed at educating future generations about the dangers of fascism.
“It’s absolutely vital that YouTube work to undo the damage caused by their indiscriminate implementation as soon as possible. Access to important material is being denied wholesale as many other channels are left branded as promoting hate when they do nothing of the sort”, Scott Allsop, who had his historical channel deleted, was cited by The Guardian as saying.
His material, however, is said to have only included old BBC documentaries, a short clip of Joseph Goebbels talking about propaganda, and a cine film of Hitler’s speech the night he was appointed chancellor.
Even though his account was reinstated on Thursday after an appeal, he told the media outlet that he had been reached by other colleagues whose materials or channels had fallen under YouTube’s new restrictions.
“I fully support YouTube’s increased efforts to curb hate speech, but also feel that silencing the very people who seek to teach about its dangers could be counter-productive to YouTube’s intended goal”, he said.
The Guardian then mentioned Richard Jones-Nerzic, another teacher affected by the clampdown, who claimed that he had been censored for uploading videos from old documentaries about the rise of Nazism.
Jones-Nerzic has appealed against YouTube’s removal of archive Nazi footage, insisting that the move was in essence a “form of negationism or even Holocaust denial”, per The Guardian.
Meanwhile, a YouTube spokesperson said that the website had used a combination of technology and people to implement the guidelines and called on users to provide context for videos uploaded for educational purposes.
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Even though both accounts have been reinstated, the news has raised a furore on social media, with many saying that erasing history is not an option – people need to know the truth to not let it happen ever again:
On 5 June, YouTube announced a new step in its hate speech policy to block thousands of 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”.
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The video-hosting service added that it is its “responsibility to protect that, and prevent our platform from being used to incite hatred, harassment, discrimination and violence”.