The link between online videos and terror is now so clear and direct that it is incontestable. In attack after attack, a recurring theme is that the perpetrator had previously watched a video posted on YouTube by an extremist. In recent months, the JC has highlighted a series of such videos — of entire channels — on YouTube that regularly spew out the most vile antisemitic hatred. One choice quote, for example, was: “Hitler was an angel, the way he took action against Jews, the way he killed Jews.”
It is an indication how seriously the web host takes this as an issue that it has refused even to offer a comment on any of our reports. Meanwhile, the damaging material remains online. The message could hardly have been clearer: YouTube could not care less that it hosted videos which promote hate and terror.
Our whistleblower’s revelation this week that YouTube was specifically warned by its own moderators that some of the most egregious videos could lead to the murder of Jews, and that it chose to ignore that warning, is however of a different order of magnitude.
Moderators said that the dozens of videos in which Pakistani preacher Israr Ahmad spouted undiluted Jew-hate were likely to cause “real world” attacks against Jews — and that is exactly what happened when Malik Faisal Ikram took four hostages at the Beth Israel synagogue in Houston, having first watched Ahmad’s videos.
The issue, however, is far wider than this one incident.
This is a sin not of omission but of commission. YouTube has taken a deliberate decision to host such videos, in full knowledge that this is likely to lead to acts of terror and the murder of Jews. By racking up millions of views, this despicable and dangerous material provides a significant revenue stream for the platform. It is shameful.
The time has long since come for governments to act against the likes of YouTube and its parent company, Google. There are already proposals for large fines if certain rules are ignored. That is not enough. Those who decide to publish videos which lead to acts of terror need to be treated as sharing responsibility with the immediate perpetrators — to be treated as the criminals they are.
