YouTube will not delete content a journalist called "racist and homophobic" in a viral Twitter thread alleging years of harassment from a right-wing commentator, the company announced Tuesday.

Last week in a viral Twitter thread, Vox journalist Carlos Maza — who hosts the video series Strikethrough — said he has faced harassment for two years from right-wing YouTube political commentator Steven Crowder. But after an investigation from YouTube, the company says it will not delete the inflammatory videos or ban Crowder from the platform.

"Crowder has not instructed his viewers to harass Maza on YouTube or any other platform and the main point of these videos was not to harass or threaten, but rather to respond to the opinion," a representative for Google, which owns YouTube, wrote to USA TODAY in an e-mail.

Crowder runs his own series on the platform called "Vox Rebuttals" — a response to Maza's "Strikethrough" — which offers a right-wing perspective on topics discussed on the Vox series.

Nevertheless, Maza said that he has become the subject of ceaseless personal attacks from Crowder and his viewers.

He chronicled a list of these homophobic and racist displays in the thread.


Carlos Maza
✔
@gaywonk
· Jun 5, 2019
Replying to @gaywonk
And if you’re an LGBT employee working at @YouTube, what the fuck are you doing?

Helping a guy sell “Socialism Is For Fags” t-shirts?

That company isn’t your friend. It’s arming the monsters that we’ve spent our lives trying to get away from. Walk out of there.


Carlos Maza
✔
@gaywonk
I have spent two years getting targeted by racist and homophobic abuse from one of @YouTube's star creators.

Today, YouTube decided that none of this violated their terms of service:

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Maza also shared that his private information has been leaked, or doxed, as a result of this harassment. He said he has received a slew of text messages and targeted tweets from Crowder's viewers.

"There is certain behavior things that is never ok: that includes encouraging viewers to harass others online and offline, or revealing non-public personal information. None of Maza’s personal information was ever revealed in content uploaded by Crowder," Google told USA TODAY.

Still, Maza points out that viewers don't necessarily have to "call on their supporters to dox someone."

More: YouTube says it's removing more hateful videos from platform

"They create an environment of targeted hostility and anger, and then play dumb when their supporters take action," he told USA TODAY in a written statement. "YouTube is catering to monsters who want to target LGBT creators while maintaining plausible deniability."

Crowder remains unapologetic.

"This is corporate censorship," he said in a YouTube video responding to Maza's allegations. "This is a war. We will fight to the bitter end, both legally and publicly." Crowder did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's request for comment.

"The result of YouTube's decision is that (expletive) is about to get a lot, lot worse," Maza told USA TODAY. "Big right-wing channels know they can get away with repeatedly using homophobic and racist slurs, because YouTube has shown they aren't willing to do anything about it."

As per its harassment and cyberbullying policy, YouTube forbids content that is "deliberately posted in order to humiliate someone, makes hurtful and negative personal comments about another person or incite others to harass or threaten individuals on or off YouTube."

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