YouTube bosses have been blasted by MPs for failing to remove extremist material posted on their website by known terrorist groups.
Parliament’s home affairs select committee told William McCants, global policy lead for counter terrorism, that his organisation’s processes for taking down radical and dangerous material were “simply not good enough”.
It follows repeated requests from the committee to remove content uploaded by a number of banned far-right organisations, including neo-Nazi outfit National Action.
McCants said YouTube was “investing millions of dollars” and hiring thousands of staff to review material flagged as extremist and that he had made it his “personal mission” to ensure the company took swift action against such groups.
But committee chair Yvette Cooper said the steps taken were clearly not working, and that she had been pointed towards more radical content to watch by the website’s recommended viewing platform just from having researched the issue.
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