Democracy Dies in Darkness

YouTube axes tens of millions of comments in crackdown on child sexual exploitation

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February 22, 2019 at 9:57 a.m. EST
YouTube also said it removed dozens of videos that were posted without malicious intent, but were nonetheless putting children at risk. (Jeff Chiu/AP)

YouTube on Thursday cracked down on pedophilic content on the site by purging tens of millions comments, which serve as a kind of powerful but overlooked social network.

A video blogger this week published a report on YouTube documenting how comments and recommendations on the platform direct users to potentially sexual videos of children, allowing them to participate in a “soft-core pedophile ring,” according to the report. YouTube also terminated more than 400 channels on Thursday that posted the comments on videos featuring children.