YouTube removed an advertisement from the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs, reveals Wednesday, May 19 the specialized site Motherboard. The advertisement, a forty-second video of footage touted as the aftermath of rocket fire that hit Israel in recent days, was also released by various Israeli ministry accounts. on other social networks.
A YouTube spokesperson explained to Motherboard that the video was removed because it violated the site’s policy regarding “Violent images”. Three different versions of the video have been viewed more than two million times in total over the past five days, presumably as a result of the advertising campaign promoting them. Based on the findings of World, the video was not shown through Facebook advertising tools.
Internal debates at Google
Over the past week, Israeli strikes on Gaza and rocket fire on Israel have sparked heated debate within Google, which owns YouTube, reports the US press. An open letter, addressed to the CEO of Google, was signed by 250 employees of the company, defining themselves as “Jews and allies”, and asking Google to end “To all contracts with institutions that contribute to the violation of the rights of Palestinians, including the Israeli armed forces”.
The text also asks the management of the company to “Reject any definition of anti-Semitism which considers critics of Israel or Zionism as anti-Semitic”, considering that amalgamating anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism “Undermines the quest for justice of Palestinians and Jews by limiting freedom of expression”.
According to the specialized site The Verge, this text comes from employees who disagree with the content of the exchanges within a discussion group internal to the company for Jewish employees, considered by some of them as too pro-Israel.