Artist News Business News Digital Legal

YouTube deletes music videos over London violence fears

By | Published on Wednesday 30 May 2018

YouTube

YouTube has confirmed that it has removed around 30 “violent” music videos from its platform at the request of London’s Metropolitan Police. This follows accusations that rappers, particularly within the UK drill genre, are contributing to rising knife crime in the capital

According to The Guardian, police have requested that between 50 and 60 videos be deleted over the last two years, with Google complying in more than half of cases.

“We have developed policies specifically to help tackle videos related to knife crime in the UK and are continuing to work constructively with experts on this issue”, says a YouTube spokesperson. “We work with the Metropolitan Police, the mayor’s office for policing and crime, the Home Office and community groups to understand this issue and ensure we are able to take action on gang-related content that infringe our community guidelines or break the law”.

They continue: “We have a dedicated process for the police to flag videos directly to our teams because we often need specialist context from law enforcement to identify real-life threats. Along with others in the UK, we share the deep concern about this issue and do not want our platform used to incite violence”.

Certain genres of music have been demonised by some as incidents of violence in London have increased in the last year. Although others insist that wider social issues, exacerbated in large part by government policy over the last decade, are the actual root of the problem.



READ MORE ABOUT: | |