Varg Vikernes’ Video Channel Banned as Part of New YouTube Policy

YouTube are taking a major step toward cracking down on hateful and supremacist content. One of the channels affected by the new rules was Thulean Perspective, the site run by Burzum frontman Varg Vikernes.

“Today, we’re taking another step in our hate speech policy by specifically prohibiting videos alleging that a group is superior in order to justify discrimination, segregation or exclusion based on qualities like age, gender, race, caste, religion, sexual orientation or veteran status. This would include, for example, videos that promote or glorify Nazi ideology, which is inherently discriminatory. Finally, we will remove content denying that well-documented violent events, like the Holocaust or the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, took place.”

Vikernes was arrested back in 2014 on suspicion of planning a massacre, inciting racial hatred and glorifying war crimes. The case went to trial in 2015 and the singer was found guilty of inciting racial hatred and glorifying war crimes. He was given a six-month suspended sentence and fined for the actions.

As for his YouTube channel, Metal Injection points out the musician notably created a video attempting to debunk the theory that we all came from Africa and indulged conspiracy theories about the U.S. using terrorism for political gain.

YouTube commented further on their policing of this type of material; "We recognize some of this content has value to researchers and NGOs looking to understand hate in order to combat it, and we are exploring options to make it available to them in the future. And as always, context matters, so some videos could remain up because they discuss topics like pending legislation, aim to condemn or expose hate, or provide analysis of current events. We will begin enforcing this updated policy today; however, it will take time for our systems to fully ramp up and we’ll be gradually expanding coverage over the next several months."

Top 30 Black Metal Albums