The popular video-sharing platform YouTube has been used by extremists since its launch in 2005. While in recent years the platform has improved significantly in its efforts to deplatform hate and extremism, these efforts have focused primarily on English-language content. Thus, while British, Australian, American, and New Zealand neo-Nazis and white supremacists have largely been removed form the platform or left voluntarily, extremists whose content is in other languages, specifically Polish, Hungarian, Romanian, and French, are allowed to continue to proliferate antisemitism, racism, homophobia, and hate on YouTube. MEMRI DTTM has published reports on Hungarian, Romanian, and French extremists using YouTube, as well as Canadian and Australian groups who still use the platform while moderating their message to comply with the site's terms of service.[1]
Polish extremists in particular have been allowed to spread hateful content to large audiences on YouTube. The platform hosts to virulently antisemitic religious sermons, bigoted anti-LGBTQ rants from neo-Nazis, and podcasts and livestreams in which participants engage in anti-migrant and racist hatred. White Supremacists and neo-Nazis have cross-posted content between YouTube and other, more extremist-friendly platforms including Telegram, Bitchute, Rumble, and their own websites and platforms. YouTube has therefore played a significant role in maximizing their reach, and allowing them to spread their message further than they otherwise could.
The following report highlights the use of YouTube by Polish neo-Nazis and white supremacists since the beginning of 2023, as well as some extremists who say they have been removed from the platform. The report offers a sampling of the content collected by the MEMRI DTTM, and features political figures, religious leaders, and extremist influencers.
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Polish Neo-Nazis And White Supremacist Spread Hate On YouTube
A pro-Russian antisemitic channel, which is affiliated with the "Bracia Kamraci" ("Camaraderie Brotherhood") movement, uploaded on July 6 a video, apparently recorded on July 4. In the video, the leader of the "Camaraderie" movement, says that he has founded a political party, also called "Camaraderie Brotherhood," which will probably run in Poland's upcoming parliamentary elections this autumn. The party's goals are: "National revolution [...] We want to knock out the teeth of our enemies [...] This is a nationalist party [...] So that in order to buy a flat you don't have to get into debt for decades in a fucking Jewish bank [...] We will build a Polish nation-state [only for Poles]."
A pro-Russian antisemite Rafał Mossakowski uploaded on July 15 a video interview with the leader of the "Camaraderie" movement who elaborated on the program of his recently created "Party of Companions": "A Poland [only] for Poles, the Pole as the host in Poland, [only] the Pole in Poland can be an owner [...] [Only] a Pole in Poland can be a legislator, Poland is an ethno-state [...] We do not agree that national minorities should have the same rights in Poland as the Poles, for example, to have voting rights [...] We will run in the upcoming parliamentary elections [...] We want to abolish income tax, because then countries such as Israel or Ukraine will lose their source of income, at the same time Poles will have something to live on."
On both YouTube and the "BanBye" streaming platform, which was established to host extremist channels banned from mainstream social media platforms, the Capital Book publishing house, which specializes in racist and antisemitic publications, uploaded on July 14 a video of a debate about a book recently published by the company. The video's featured image depicts an antisemitic caricature of an Israeli soldier and the text, "They lied, they lied, and they will lie." The video is titled: "H*locaust industry. Dangers and absurdities." Antisemite Stanisław Michalkiewicz, a commentator of the influential Catholic media, stated in the debate: "For the Holocaust industry, after the information that the Germans will no longer pay reparations for the Holocaust [...] decided that it was necessary for them to find a substitute perpetrator to exploit. Your choice Poland [...] Jewish historical and German policies were coordinated [against Poland]."
On Facebook and YouTube, a Polish extreme-right, ultranationalist, and anti-Ukrainian youth organization uploaded on July 10 a video compilation of archival footage depicting the group's activities, including destroying a monument to Ukrainian soldiers in WWII, participating in demonstrations commemorating a WWII massacre of Poles in the Volhynia region, attacking Ukrainian religious celebrations in Poland, and disrupting meetings with speakers from Ukraine. On Facebook, the group wrote: "Over the past few years, national groups were actively taking part in promoting the memory of the victims of the genocide in Poland's Eastern Borderlands [...] Our actions will not stop there, we demand the exhumation of [the remains of our] brutally murdered compatriots."
An antisemitic, anti-Ukrainian, and pro-Russian film director and author uploaded on June 27 a video in which he stated: "On July 10 at 9 am, I invite everyone to the commemoration in Jedwabne [a town whose Jewish residents were murdered by Poles during WWII; Polish nationalists claim the massacres were committed by Germans]. This time we are preparing something special. We want the Polish celebrations to be before the Jewish ones [...] This is the place where the battle for our future will take place [...] In order to gain dirty money and power, Jews say that Poles were murderers there [...] Among us there are people who do not reveal their real nationality and they say they are Poles [hinting that political opponents are secretly Jews] [...] They hide among us and at the right moment they attack Poles [...] They are preparing for us Ukro-polin – a country consisting of a symbiosis of three nations [i.e., Poles, Jews, and Ukrainians] [...] Jews have always attacked Poles [...] Jews have always formed alliances with those who wanted to destroy us [...] Today they attack the Catholic Church, they support all initiatives that attack the Polish church, [such as] LGBT, feminists, etc."
[1] See MEMRI DTTM Reports, Hungarian Neo-Nazi Groups Use YouTube To Spread Antisemitic, Homophobic, Racist, Ultranationalist Content, July 19, 2023; YouTube Provides Haven For Canadian Neo-Nazis, White Supremacists, Anti-Government Extremists, And Accelerationists Who Recruit And Disseminate Messaging Across The Platform, March 13, 2023; Australian Neo-Nazi And White Supremacists Take To YouTube To Disseminate Message, Promote Conspiracy Theories, Appeal To Prospective Recruits, May 15, 2023.
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