Google grants ‘super flagger’ status to British security services
Google has granted British security officials a so-called ‘super flagger’ status enabling them to have content deemed to be a national security threat to be instantly screened.
The move comes in the wake of a proliferation of jihadist videos mushrooming on the platform in the wake of the civil war in Syria, which have enticed up to 400 British Muslims to take part in the conflict.
Now YouTube has given the Home Office the power to flag up large volumes of similar content instead of individual videos in an effort to stem radicalisation.
Speaking to the Financial Times immigration minister James Brokenshire said the government had to do more to deal with content “that may not be illegal but certainly is unsavoury and may not be the sort of material that people would want to see or receive.”
Civil liberties campaigners have voiced alarm at the concession but Google insists it retains the final say on whether to remove content.
In a statement YouTube said: “We have a zero-tolerance policy on YouTube towards content that incites violence,” YouTube said. “Our community guidelines prohibit such content and our review teams respond to flagged videos around the clock, routinely removing videos that contain hate speech or incitement to commit violent acts.
“To increase the efficiency of this process, we have developed an invite-only program that gives users who flag videos regularly tools to flag content at scale.”