YouTube blasted for neo-Nazi clips

YouTube is taking heat from German Jewish groups enraged over Nazi content posted on the video hosting website, according to reports coming out of Frankfurt and Berlin. The offending videos are said to include clips from a 1940s Nazi propaganda film and music videos from Landser and Kommando Freisler, a pair of banned skinhead rock bands. The issue gained widespread attention on German public TV.

A children's welfare organization, Jugendschutz.net, said YouTube has ignored more than 100 of its complaints over the material, to its detriment. This is not another of YouTube's string of content copyright spats.  Nazi glorification is illegal in Germany 60-some years after the atrocities of the Third Reich. The Central Council of Jews in Germany may file criminal charges against Google Germany, the European Jewish Press reports.

YouTube is owned by Google, the Mountain View, Calif. search engine empire, which last week launched an ad program on the site known for its egalitarian community. Censorship is left to the self-policing sensibilities of users. Analysts estimated Google ads on YouTube would generate around $114 million, a paltry sum for Google, and possibly an optimistic one, given that inaugural clients included Munich car maker BMW.

For More:
- The European Jewish Press report is here
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Deutshe Welle summarizes YouTube's entanglement in German racial sensitivities here
- InformationWeek covers Google's YouTube ad plan here