By BARBARA ORTUTAY,
MARCY GORDON and
RACHEL LERMAN
 Associated
Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — A congressional hearing on online hate turned into a vivid
demonstration of the problem Tuesday when a YouTube livestream of the
proceedings was bombarded with racist and anti-Semitic comments from
internet users.
YouTube disabled the live chat section of the streaming video about 30
minutes into the hearing because of what it called "hateful comments."
The
incident came as executives from Google and Facebook appeared before the
House Judiciary Committee to answer questions about the companies' role in
the spread of hate crimes and the rise of white nationalism in the U.S. They
were joined by leaders of such human rights organizations as the
Anti-Defamation League and the Equal Justice Society, along with
conservative commentator Candace Owens.
Neil Potts, Facebook director of public policy, and Alexandria Walden,
counsel for free expression and human rights at Google, defended policies at
the two companies that prohibit material that incites violence or hate.
Google owns YouTube.
"There is no place for terrorism or hate on Facebook," Potts testified. "We
remove any content that incites violence."
The
hearing broke down into partisan disagreement among the lawmakers and among
some of the witnesses, with Republican members of Congress denouncing as
hate speech Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar's criticism of American supporters of
Israel.
As
the bickering went on, committee chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., was
handed a news report that included the hateful comments about the hearing on
YouTube. He read them aloud, along with the users' screen names, as the room
quieted.
"This just illustrates part of the problem we're dealing with," Nadler said.
The
hearing comes as the U.S. is experiencing an increase in hate crimes and
hate groups.
There were 1,020 known hate groups in the country in 2018, the fourth
straight year of growth, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which
monitors extremism in the U.S. Hate crimes, meanwhile, rose 30 percent in
the three-year period ending in 2017, the organization said, citing FBI
figures.
Democratic Rep. David Cicilline of Rhode Island grilled the Facebook and
Google executives about their companies' responsibility for the spread of
white supremacist views, pushing them to acknowledge they have played a
role, even if it was unintentional. Potts and Walden conceded the companies
have a duty to try to curb hate.
But
the challenges became clear as Cicilline pushed Potts to answer why Facebook
did not immediately remove far-right commentator Faith Goldy last week,
after announcing a ban on white nationalism on the social network.
Goldy, who has asked her viewers to help "stop the white race from
vanishing," was not removed until Monday.
"What specific proactive steps is Facebook taking to identify other leaders
like Faith Goldy and preemptively remove them from the platform?" Cicilline
asked.
Potts reiterated that the company works to identify people with links to
hate and violence and banishes them from Facebook.
The
hearing was prompted by the mosque shootings last month in Christchurch, New
Zealand, that left 50 people dead. The gunman livestreamed the attacks on
Facebook and published a long post online that espoused white supremacist
views.
But
controversy over white nationalism and hate speech has dogged online
platforms such as Facebook and Google's YouTube for years.
In
2017, following the deadly violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, tech
giants began banishing extremist groups and individuals espousing white
supremacist views and support for violence. Facebook extended the ban to
white nationalists.
Despite the ban, accounts such as one with the name Aryan Pride were still
visible as of late Monday. The account read: "IF YOUR NOT WHITE friend ur
own kind cause Im not ur friend."
On
Wednesday, a Senate subcommittee will hold a hearing on allegations that
companies such as Facebook, Google and Twitter are biased against
conservatives, an allegation leveled by political figures from President
Donald Trump on down.
The
companies have denied any such bias.
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Posted 4/9/2019
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