The Counter Extremism Project has repeatedly called for a serious effort to reduce the extensive availability of extremist and radicalizing content on YouTube. The logical action for YouTube—and other companies controlling private content supporting services—is to remove such extremist content, in the same manner it removes other restricted (but legal) material such as pornography. It is unclear what kind of expertise technology companies have in devising or determining effective counter-narrative resources and content.

This content is dangerous, and has at times proved deadly as extremists have been found to self-radicalize by watching extremist content on YouTube, including lectures by extremist preachers Anwar al-Awlaki and Ahmad Musa Jibril . Orlando gunman Omar Mateen was found to have been radicalized in part by watching Awlaki videos online. The 2013 Boston bombers— Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsranev —were later found to have downloaded Awlaki’s YouTube videos onto their electronic devices. One of the assailants in the June 3, 2017, London Bridge attack was also reportedly radicalized while watching Jibril’s videos on YouTube.

Although Google pledged to do more to bolster "brand safety," the company has continued to host violent and extremist materials. After the March 2017 Westminster attack, YouTube was "inundated with violent ISIS recruitment videos," according to findings by the U.K. government. The British government noted that YouTube failed to block this slew of content, despite the videos being easily searchable and posted under usernames like "Islamic Caliphate."

Despite the positive press the announcement generated, Google continues to host extremist and terrorist content on its platform. In March 2017, more than 250 companies froze or partially froze their advertising accounts with Google after discovering that their ads were appearing next to extremist, hateful, and terrorist content on YouTube. According to reports, the revenue loss to Google—YouTube’s parent company—amounted to up to $750 million.

As one senior executive for Google told British MPs: "We should get the bad stuff down... This year... we are running two pilot programmes. One is to make sure that these [counter narrative] types of videos are more discoverable on YouTube. The other one is to make sure when people put potentially damaging search terms into our search engine... they also find this counter narrative." The announcement was covered in major British outlets, including the Guardian, Telegraph, and Daily Mail, as well as U.S. outlet NBC News.

The "bad stuff"—including lectures by Anwar al-Awlaki, who has played a role in radicalizing dozens to terrorism—is by no means taken down. The Counter Extremism Project has tracked the availability of Anwar al-Awlaki videos on YouTube from December 2015 through August 2017. In that time, CEP has made the following discovery:

The Counter Extremism Project has repeatedly advocated for YouTube to remove extremist content. Extremist material is currently far too available on YouTube. A search for notorious al-Qaeda recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki on YouTube, for example, yielded 70,100 search results as of August 30, 2017. Many of the results are lectures by Awlaki, urging violent jihad against non-Muslims, and Americans in particular.

Part 2 of Google’s Program: Make counter-narrative "more discoverable" on YouTube:

On July 20, 2017, Google formally announced the launch of its Redirect Method on YouTube, a program designed to identify users searching for ISIS-linked content on YouTube and expose them to advertisements and video playlists on YouTube that run counter to ISIS’s narratives. While potentially useful, Google is unable to provide convincing evidence supporting its claims that the Redirect Method actually dissuades potential ISIS supporters.

Instead, Google highlights statistics purported to demonstrate how many YouTube users were "reached" and the amount of "minutes of video" users watched. The foregoing are metrics for measuring the efficacy of digital advertising – not for a counter radicalization program. For example, no information is provided about the individuals who watched the videos or whether or not any of them were, in fact, even on the path to radicalization. Most importantly, these points do not tell us whether watching Google’s videos in fact dissuaded any of the viewers from supporting ISIS or other extremist groups (openly or secretly), or from carrying out acts of violence.

Results from Google’s Redirect Program, published July 2017. These findings do not indicate whether any of the viewers targeted by Google’s advertisements were, in fact, ISIS recruits or sympathizers. These findings also do not tell us whether they were at all dissuaded from supporting ISIS or other extremist groups or from carrying out acts of violence.

There are serious reasons to doubt that the Redirect program is achieving its intended objective. For example, one counter-narrative playlist designed by Google to undermine ISIS narratives, "Answering the Call," was presented as an example of a successful case study for the Redirect Method. Although the video "reached" more than 100,000 viewers, Google neglects to mention that the video was overwhelmingly unpopular among its viewing audience—receiving 57 dislikes compared to only 12 likes as of July 25, 2017—an interesting data point considering that this video is intended to influence and impact its audience. Of course, "viewership" numbers tell us little about the identity of the viewers and whether or not the individuals were at all influenced or dissuaded by Redirect from engaging in terrorist violence, if any were in fact ISIS sympathizers.

Furthermore, a large portion of commenters on the Redirect video appeared to be people visibly concerned by ISIS content, rather than interested in or motivated by it. Although the commenters were a relatively tiny subset of the video’s total viewership, this may point to a flaw in Google’s advertisement targeting methods. While neither of these data points ensure that the program is entirely ineffective at reaching some members of ISIS’s audience—or potentially even discouraging them somewhat from aligning themselves with ISIS—the paucity of meaningful data from this program is serious cause for concern.

Google Redirect’s "Answering the Call" – a trailer for a playlist of videos designed to counter ISIS narratives. Comments beneath the video suggest that a meaningful portion of the viewership was not supportive of ISIS and that the video may not have reached its intended audience.

Comments under Google Redirect’s "Answering the Call" – a trailer for a playlist of videos designed to counter ISIS narratives. These comments appear to suggest that the video may have missed the mark, reaching many users that were visibly concerned by ISIS content, rather than motivated or interested by it. Some excerpts: "This is totally bullshit, mother fuc***g terrorist advertising themselves !"; "Google [n]eeds to review ads before allowing them on their platform...!!!!!"; "wth [What the hell], why this [Redirect] video is supposed to be an ad" (sic); "REPORT THIS CHANNEL"

Concerns about the Redirect program aside, the facts remain that counter-narrative content and voices continue to be drowned out by the high volume of extremist material on YouTube that remains readily available. In an analysis conducted in August 2016, the first page of search results for "Anwar al-Awlaki" on YouTube yielded one counter narrative video out of the 18 videos. In subsequent searches conducted in June 2017, few if any counter-narrative videos appeared on the first page of search results. When these videos did appear, they often appeared further down and less prominently than Awlaki’s own speeches.

These findings are disappointing given that authoritative material countering Awlaki is available online. For example, a video by Dr. Yasir Qadhi, provides potentially useful context about Anwar al-Awlaki and the danger of his message. Dr. Qadhi says: "My business is to judge [Anwar al-Awlaki’s] legacy. And his legacy has a lot of good and also a lot of harm and danger. So should you listen to him? If you want to take the good and you’re qualified to only take the good, fine. But be careful that his methodology of jihad, in my humble opinion... It sounds so good, but what good will it do you? ... Our religion does not tell us to die foolish deaths." This video has begun to appear on the first page of YouTube search results, but it did not appear consistently in YouTube’s sidebar while watching Anwar al-Awlaki’s hateful videos.