MPs said that YouTube was not taking the problem seriously enough

YouTube removed only 25,000 of nearly 15 million videos that were flagged as hateful or abusive, MPs have revealed as they accused the company of taking the issue “less seriously” than its rivals.

The home affairs select committee has asked bosses at the Google-owned company for an explanation for the tiny takedown rate recorded in its statistics for July to December last year.

A total of 14,994,703 videos uploaded by users of the video app and website were flagged in the two categories but only 25,145 were taken off the platform — representing 0.17 per cent.

The MPs are investigating hate crime. In a letter to YouTube, they also asked for an explanation for reports by news outlets in New Zealand that footage of the