YouTube suspends star who hurled homophobic abuse at journalist

YouTube has suspended  a star with millions of fans following an intense backlash, limiting his ability to earn money from his videos. This after it initially refused to punish Steven Crowder, who hurled homophobic abuse at a journalist. 

Journalist Carlos Maza said Crowder consistently mocked his sexuality and ethnicity in his YouTube videos.

YouTube responded to Maza, saying although Crowder's language was "hurtful", it didn't constitute a violation of its policies.

This prompted criticism, with many questioning YouTube's enforcement of its policies. After being called out, YouTube suspended Crowder's channel and issued a statement.

In it, YouTube's head of communications, Chris Dale, said as an open platform they "sometimes host opinions and views that many, ourselves included, may find offensive". He added that removing offensive material would mean losing "valuable speech".

Dale said that for a video to break YouTube's rules on harassment, its purpose, as a whole, had to be to target an individual by inciting further harassment, threatening or humiliating them or revealing their personal information.

"Short moments from these videos spliced together paint a troubling picture. But, individually, they don't always cross the line," he said.

Referring to YouTube's decision to suspend Crowder's channel, Dale said a "thorough view found that flagged videos did not violate our Community Guidelines".

"However, in the subsequent days, we saw the widespread harm to the YouTube community resulting from the ongoing pattern of egregious behaviour, took a deeper look and made the decision to suspend monetisation.

"In order to be considered for reinstatement, all relevant issues with the channel need to be addressed, including any videos that violate our policies, as well as things like offensive merchandise."

Dale said  not everyone would agree with the calls they made.

"Some will say we haven't done enough, others will say we've gone too far," said Dale.

However, he said YouTube would be "taking a hard look" at its harassment policies by consulting with "experts, creators, journalists and those who have, themselves, been victims of harassment."