Letting hate flourish

A joint investigation by Global Witness and the Internet Freedom Foundation found that YouTube and Koo failed to act on the majority of reported misogynistic hate speech in India and the US. YouTube removed none of the 79 reported videos, while Koo removed only six of 23 reported posts. The report argues that profit-driven business models and inadequate content moderation pose risks to women and election integrity in 2024.

• YouTube failed to remove any of the 79 videos containing misogynistic hate speech reported by the investigators in India and the US. Only one Hindi-language video had its status changed to include an age restriction, though it was unclear if this was a result of the reporting process.
• Koo removed just over a quarter of the reported content, deleting six out of 23 posts that violated its policies, including attacks on female politicians. The platform was generally faster than YouTube, completing most reviews within a day.
• The report asserts that social media business models prioritize engagement and profit over safety, which encourages the spread of extreme content and outrage.
• The failure to moderate prohibited content is identified as a threat to election integrity in 2024, particularly in the US and India, where online harassment of public officials and election workers has already led to resignations.
• The report highlights a systemic reliance on automated content moderation that is prone to errors, especially for low-resource languages, as platforms have historically prioritized English.
• The document notes that YouTube has been found to run advertisements on climate denial content despite having policies against such practices.

APA

Global Witness (2024). Letting hate flourish. https://globalwitness.org/documents/116/Letting_Hate_Flourish_-_February_2024.pdf

Chicago

Global Witness. Letting hate flourish. 2024. https://globalwitness.org/documents/116/Letting_Hate_Flourish_-_February_2024.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Global Witness |title=Letting hate flourish |date=February 2024 |url=https://globalwitness.org/documents/116/Letting_Hate_Flourish_-_February_2024.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{globalwitness2024letting, author = {{Global Witness}}, title = {{Letting hate flourish}}, institution = {Global Witness}, year = {2024}, month = feb, url = {https://globalwitness.org/documents/116/Letting_Hate_Flourish_-_February_2024.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }