The Central Council of Jews in Germany has filed a lawsuit against the US-based search engine provider Google demanding that it remove hate videos from the video platform “YouTube”, which is a Google subsidiary. Among the offending videos is one in which a photo of the late president of the council, Paul Spiegel, was burned against a background of swastikas. The secretary-general of the council, Stephan Kramer, said that Google’s inaction made it a collaborator in spreading hate.
A spokesman for Google Germany said that the firm agreed that such material was an abuse of the public forum and that it had been seeking ways to block it. He said the public should report potentially illegal videos, which experts review and can remove. “YouTube”, is a free service and was purchased by Google in 2006. Observers of the far-right scene quickly found videos on the site from banned music groups and films that incite rumors about supposed Jewish conspiracies.
