YouTube’s CEO Had This to Say About Videos with Homophobic Slurs

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki may have apologized for hurtful ivideos on the company’s platform that has homophobic and anti-gay slurs, but she still believes it’s right for the videos to remain.

In an interview at the Code Conference in Arizona, Wojcicki was speaking about a ban the company had imposed last week on hate speech, including videos that promote ideas of racial superiority.

Many questions were thrown at the CEO over why she left some particular videos up while taking some down.

Journalist Carlos Maza was the man with the questions as Maza recently launched a campaign to bring attention to homophobic abuse and harassment that he had received from a conservative YouTube personality.

“I know the decision we made was very hurtful to the LGBTQ community,” Wojcicki said. “That was not our intention at all. We’re really sorry about that.”

She added, “and in the end, we decided it was not violative of our policy.”

“I do agree this was the right decision,” she said.

Wojcicki has explained that YouTube has a “high bar” for what counts as malicious material, and that the service faced a challenge in being consistent.