Introduction
In 2019, Youtube announced it would be banning content that promoted Nazi ideologies. It received pushback from some British educators who were reportedly banned for uploading educational content about the Second World War. These educators had a legitimate grievance; educating people about WWII, and the conditions that ultimately led to the Holocaust, is a crucial step in trying to ensure that it never happens again. An event that cannot be discussed is one that is more easily forgotten, especially 80 years after the fact.
If we are serious about tackling and preventing extremism, online platforms must allow content that educates people about the horrors of the Nazi party and the Second World War. Considerations like these likely informed Youtube’s decision to specifically allow content that might otherwise be removed if it has “Educational, Documentary, Scientific, or Artistic (EDSA) context”.
Unfortunately, OHPI has observed a concerning trend with respect to this change in policy; this caveat is now being exploited by Neo-Nazis online. Material that glorifies Hitler and the Nazis, which may have previously been removed for violating Youtube’s Hateful Conduct Policy, is now remaining online, incorrectly being deemed educational.
OHPI recently met with Youtube’s Public Policy department and flagged this content directly with the platform. After that meeting, we were notified that the videos had been reviewed, but that Youtube had determined they did not violate their Community Guidelines. This is concerning; as discussed below, these videos blatantly glorify Hitler and the Nazi party, thereby playing a harmful role in the promotion of online extremism. If these videos can avoid moderation even after being flagged directly to the platform, this suggests that there is something fundamentally flawed in the way that Youtube is assessing potentially hateful content. All of the videos discussed in this article remains online at the time of writing.
Videos Glorifying the Nazis
There is a small sub-genre on Youtube of videos that glorify Nazism while disguised as educational content in order to avoid moderation.
Video One
One such video is titled ‘Fainted X Austrian Painter | Educational Purposes Only !’. The first few seconds depict disclaimers that outline the purpose of the video, in which it claims it is ‘not intended to glorify or support nazism or any other ideology presented in the video’, and is instead made ‘for educational and historical documentation purposes’. There is also a swastika with a line through it.
The main bulk of the video is a still image of Hitler, accompanied with audio of a Hitler speech with unmistakably motivational music behind it. The speech has subtitles in English at the bottom, and there is also text that reads “Educational Purposes only!”. The video description includes the text:
‘SAY NO TO NAZISM AND FACISM !
‘LOVEL HUMANS !
LOVE JEWS, LOVE ISRAEL !’
Despite these warnings, the overall effect of the accompanying music, the image and the speech is to glorify Hitler. It presents Hitler as a powerful figure to be revered, and encourages the viewer to feel motivated in favour of the ideas presented in the speech. The purpose of this video is not to impartially educate the audience about the horrors of the Nazi party. Instead, it is an attempt to make the viewer look up to Hitler and sympathise with his ideas.
This interpretation of the video is confirmed by the comments, which are overwhelmingly in pro-Hitler and pro-Nazi. Below are two screenshots of the comments section, which feature comments that overwhelmingly praise Hitler. One comment, with 395 upvotes, describes Hitler as the “Man who tried to save the world”.
We see similar ideas in this next batch of comments from the same video, which describe Hitler “A hero” and a “Great Leader”.
Amongst the comments on these faux-educational videos, pro-Hitler sentiments are the rule, rather than the exception. Like the other videos observed along this trend, the comment section is an overwhelmingly pro-Hitler environment, with the vast majority of comments signalling support for Hitler and receiving a significant number of upvotes when doing so. You’d be hard pressed to find many comments that criticized Hitler, or appear to be from an impartial observer who genuinely wants to learn about WWII.
It is also worth pointing out that the title of this video (and the others discussed below) also indicate that its true purpose is not educational. It refers to Hitler as the “Austrian Painter”, rather than naming him directly. This nickname for Hitler is something that has developed in far-right spaces online, so that users can praise Hitler whilst avoiding the moderation that may come from naming him directly. The use of it in the title of this video serves as a dogwhistle that communicates its true purpose to the audience, and also increases the chances that the video will be presented to users searching for “Austrian Painter” in the hopes of finding pro-Nazi material.
Video Two
This second faux-educational video is titled ‘Austrian Painter x pulsebreaker (Super Slowed) Edit – Propaganda Exposing Video (Re-upload)’, and follows a similar pattern to the above. The first few frames display a disclaimer according to which the video is for educational purposes only, and which condemns all forms of hate.
From there, we see a video recording of a Hitler speech with English subtitles. The speech is accompanied by electronic backing music that lends it an air of authority, and makes the viewer feel motivated towards the ideas being expressed.
As with the previous video, the comments overwhelmingly express support for the Nazis. In particular, many of the comments contain two lightning bolts. These lightening bolts, also known as the ‘double-Sig rune’ or ‘SS Bolts’, is a commonly used Neo-Nazi symbol.
As the title of the video suggests, this video is a re-upload of a previous video. It is reasonable to think that the previous version of the video was removed for being against Youtube’s policy on promoting hateful conduct (see below). Some of the users make reference to this fact, with one commentator urging the viewer to “download this while you still can”, with another writing “OMG I HAVE SEARCHED FOR THIS EDIT FOR SOOOO LOOONG”. This can also shed further light on the phrase “Austrian Painter” in the title; it is likely that the previous version of this video (before it was disguised as educational content) needed another strategy for avoiding moderation, and so therefore avoided direct reference to Hitler.
These comments imply that previous versions of these videos were removed by the platform, but that they are now able to remain online by posing as educational.
Video Three
This final video is titled ‘Austrian Painter x Joseph Goebbels (Phonk Edit) – Propaganda Exposed (Re-upload)’. The first few seconds depict disclaimers that outline the purpose of the video, which it claims is “presented for historical and educational analysis only”. The user says they have uploaded the video to “try to demonstrate how they [Nazis] influenced people and spread hateful ideas”.
The description of the video reaffirms this educational purpose, stating “This is an educational, critical analysis of propaganda tactics – how they functioned in Nazi Germany and why understanding them matters today. The focus is on exposure, not admiration.”
The video content itself portrays an image of high-ranking Nazis, including Hitler, standing in front of the Eiffel Tower. In the background, and untranslated Hitler speech plays accompanied by pounding electronic music. The image pulses in time with the music. The video is accompanied by small text in the top-left that says “Educational Historical Documentation”, as well as an image of an image of a Swastika with a line through it in the top-right. A text box in the centre explains that the Nazi’s control of Paris was “about psychological power – a message directed at Europe and the world”.
This video also glorifies Hitler and the Nazi party. The effect of the music and the visuals is to imbue the audio of Hitler’s speech with a creeping sense of strength and dominance. This is complimented by the picture, which depicts the Nazis as authoritative and self-assured. The overall effect is to depict the Nazis positively, as a force to be reckoned with and respected.
The comments of the video confirm this analysis. One user writes “Thank you for educating me”, followed by the SS Bolts.
Another commenter compels us to watch Europa: The Last Battle; a popular historically inaccurate documentary that denies the Holocaust and portrays Nazis as the true victims of WWII.
In a back-and-forth, one commenter says they “prefer this France”, leading another to claim that France is now “how we Germans predicted” and that “if u listen to gobbels total war speech, its crazy how everything happend exactly how they told whole europe”.
Clearly, then, the people consuming this content are not good-faith observers hoping to learn about the Nazi party and WWII. Instead, they are people who sympathise with the Nazis and are watching videos like this to reinforce their extremist views.
Interestingly, many of the comments to this video acknowledge the absurdity of the author’s claim that the video is supposed to be educational. One user writes “i feel the education through my veins”.
This comment, with 47 upvotes (and which has been liked by the video’s author) is an allusion to the fact that these videos are not genuinely intended to be educational. It is clear to all the viewers that the true purpose of this video is actually to show and encourage support for the Nazis, rather than to impartially educate its audience. This is clear to any reasonably observer that consumes this content; so how are these videos remaining on the platform?
Youtube’s Hateful Conduct Policy
Youtube’s hateful conduct policy prohibits the following content:
- “Promotion of hateful supremacism by alleging the superiority of a group over those with protected group status to justify violence, discrimination, segregation, or exclusion. This includes content containing hateful supremacist propaganda, such as the recruitment of new members or requests for financial support for their ideology, and music videos promoting hateful supremacism in the lyrics, metadata, or imagery.”
Youtube’s transparency report lists “A video about World War II containing pro-Nazi commentary and imagery” as being among the content that would be removed for breaching this hateful conduct policy.
However, this transparency report also cites Youtube’s Community Guidelines, according to which content that would otherwise be removed may stay online when it has “Educational, Documentary, Scientific, or Artistic (EDSA) context”. Google’s support page on EDSA content gives helpful advice on how to add context that will help the platform determine whether a video is educational, and hence whether it should be allowed to remain online. It explains that the platform is more likely to allow videos that communicate explicitly to the audience that it condemns certain claims/views, and that discourage dangerous behaviour. It suggests that authors add this context in the title, in the description, or in the audio/visual content of the video itself.
The videos discussed above appear to be responding directly to these guidelines. They are employing all these techniques to ensure that their video is deemed educational and can therefore remain online. Crucially, however, adjusting the content in the ways suggested does not change the overall effect on the video. Despite the inclusion of disclaimers and explicit disavowals of Nazi ideologies, it is overwhelmingly obvious that the true purpose and effect of these videos is to glorify and signal support for Nazis and Hitler. This is evidenced by the comments section on these videos, which contain explicit and implicit acknowledgements of this fact. Explicit disclaimers may be a good indication of when material is designed to educate about, rather than glorify, Nazism. But the presence of such disclaimers should be not treated as a green light to throw caution to the wind, and allow material that obviously serves to promote extremism.
Conclusion
Your typical, historically accurate WWII documentary portrays Hitler as many things; ruthless, manic, paranoid, evil. But mainstream portrayals do not intentionally present him as badass. Ironically, the Youtube videos discussed in this article, which claim to be for educational purposes only, are designed to be a kind of re-education. They attempt to shift the viewer’s perspective on Hitler and other Nazis such that, rather than viewing these figures as morally abhorrent mass-murdering psychopaths, the audience sees them as badass. For a certain kind of teenage boy on the internet, there is no surer way of guaranteeing respect.
The solution to this problem is not to ban educational content about WWII or the Nazi Party. As emphasised at the start of this article, education is a crucial safeguard for repeating the mistakes of the past, and should therefore be encouraged by anyone who opposes extremism.
As indicated above, OHPI met directly with Youtube and flagged this material with them, but were eventually told that the material had been assessed as not being in violation of Youtube’s Community Guidelines. The existence of a loophole being exploited by extremists is one thing, but it’s another problem entirely that, even when this material is flagged directly to and reviewed by the platform, the platform elects to leave it online. It is clear, including to those engaging with the videos in the comments section, that the purpose and effect of these videos is to glorify and promote Nazism. If Youtube has determined that the videos in question are not in violation of their Community Standards, then this suggests that there is a problem with the application of its rules surrounding educational content.