A senior Google executive was left struggling to explain why YouTube, which it owns, had not taken down a video despite admitting that it was “antisemitic, deeply offensive and shocking”.
The video, titled “Jews admit organising White genocide”, was posted by David Duke, a former high ranking member of the Ku Klux Klan and one of America’s most notorious antisemites.
Peter Barron, vice-president of communications and public affairs for Google Europe, the Middle East and Africa, told the House of Commons’ Home Affairs Select Committee that he was “not going to defend the content of the video”, which he described as “abhorrent”.
He also said that “the question is – and it’s an important question related to the wider issue of freedom of expression – is that content illegal and does it break our guidelines?