The recent controversy surrounding PewDiePie has drawn further attention to some of YouTube’s sordid hosting history, including numerous Neo-Nazi “Hate Rock” bands which the popular video sharing site not only hosts but also makes advertising money off of.
__________________________
Guest Post by David Lowery on The Trichordist
Neo Nazi bands like Weisse Wölfe have large followings on YouTube. Comments sections for these videos are used for recruitment and organizing by neo Nazi groups.
As I’ve noted on this blog and on twitter in the last few days. The Trichordist has been reporting on the YouTube’s sordid history of hosting and monetizing (with advertising and data mining) hate rock and other speech intended to provoke violence against vulnerable groups.
A number of years ago I did some research for a private individual on the extent that hate rock permeates YouTube, and if there was evidence that neo-Nazi groups were using these videos to recruit members and radicalize followers. The results were shocking. At the time virtually every band on the Anti-Defamation League’s list of “Bigots Who Rock: an ADL List of Hate Music Groups” had a presence on YouTube. And by any realistic measure there was clearly an effort to recruit and organize those who shared this ideology.
Well I just did a cursory inspection of YouTube and the previous results still seem to hold true:
For example this (somewhat portlandia-ish) effort, here we see Neo-Nazis in the northwest of the US organizing
