Why Is YouTube Punishing People Who Translate and Expose Anti-Semitism on Its Platform? | Tablet Magazine

This past month, Tablet published a piece by journalist Eylon Aslan-Levy about a new cartoon music video that had just been released by the terrorist group Hamas. Written in Hebrew in an effort to intimidate Israelis, the animated song featured explicit exhortations to violence against Jewish civilians, and included such iconic images as an ultra-Orthodox Jew “having his head blown off and stuck on a pike, as well as another being shot in the head through crosshairs.” As part of his report, Aslan-Levy posted the video on YouTube with English subtitles, so that non-Hebrew readers could understand Hamas’s threats in it. Two days later, YouTube took down his translated video for “hate speech” and warned him that further offenses could result in the suspension of his account. Essentially, the service was unable to distinguish between journalism that aimed to expose violent incitement and bigotry, and the real thing. Last week, YouTube denied Aslan-Levy’s appeal, in which he explained he was a reporter acting to inform the public.