by OT
UK Gov thinks music videos with violent scenes are to blame for rising crime rates, so in the continuing of even more censorship, tells YouTube, who obliges, in pulling 30 Music videos mostly from the Chicago Drill Genre.
Guns, sharp knives, porn, music. They are running out of things to ban.
via billboard:
YouTube has removed 30 music videos deemed excessively “violent,” following a takedown request from the U.K.’s most senior police officer.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick asked the video-streaming giant to yank the contentious clips, which she has said glamorizes violence and contributed to a worrying crime wave in London. Dick singled out the drill genre, whose leading light is arguably Chief Keef, the Chicago artist who had a surprise hit as a teenage with 2012’s “I Don’t Like.”
According to reports, YouTube has complied with the Met’s demands.
A YouTube spokesman told the BBC, “We have developed policies specifically to help tackle videos related to knife crime in the U.K. and are continuing to work constructively with experts on this issue. Along with others in the U.K, we share the deep concern about this issue and do not want our platform used to incite violence.”
Over the past two years, Scotland Yard has asked the Alphabet-owned platform to take down between 50 and 60 music videos, though it remains unclear which clips have been pulled.
The mass takedown comes after an interview broadcast on LBC radio earlier this month in which Dick pointed the finger at drill and its violent lyrics, which she said may have encouraged a string of violent attacks in the capital. “Drill music is associated with lyrics which are about glamorizing series violence – murder, stabbings. They describe the stabbings in great detail, joy and excitement,” she said. “Extreme violence against women is often talked about. Most particularly, in London we have gangs who make drill videos and in those videos, they taunt each other. They say what they’re going to do to each other and specifically what they are going to do to who.”
Dick also confirmed she was working with social media companies “to get them to think about what they can do about this.”
Scotland Yard has built-up a database of more than 1,400 indexed videos that they use to gather intelligence, The Independent reports.
A group of drill musicians, dubbed 1011, have launched an online petition to try to stop YouTube from banning the videos. More than 5,000 supporters have signed up.