YouTube restricts far-right activist Tommy Robinson but doesn't ban him
The English Defence League founder has been hit with serious restrictions.
Tommy Robinson (center front) has been restricted on YouTube.
YouTube has placed major restrictions on the channel of UK far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
Instead of hitting the English Defence League founder with an outright ban, the video-streaming site placed limiting factors on his content, as previously reported by Buzzfeed.
"After consulting with third party experts, we are applying a tougher treatment to Tommy Robinson's channel in keeping with our policies on borderline content," a YouTube spokesperson said in an emailed statement. "The content will be placed behind an interstitial, removed from recommendations, and stripped of key features including livestreaming, comments, suggested videos, and likes."
The interstitial is a warning that precedes the video and notes that it may not be appropriate for all viewers.
Robinson didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The activist, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was slapped with a Facebook and Instagram ban in February for breaking hate speech rules. He was banned from Twitter last year.
Addressing hate speech has been a major issue for social media sites. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube gave conspiracy theorist Alex Jones the boot last year. Facebook also banned pages linked to far-right extremist Proud Boys in October, following violence in New York.
First published at 4:17 a.m. PT.
Update, 7:20 a.m.: Adds YouTube's statement.