YouTube finally boots neo-Nazi group linked to murder of gay Jewish college student

YouTube has finally shut off the channel of an extreme neo-Nazi group, one of whose members has been charged with murdering a gay Jewish college student in January.

The Atomwaffen Division, a hardcore neo-Nazi group considered extreme even for neo-Nazis, was kicked off YouTube on Wednesday, less than a week after publication of a widely read expose on the group in ProPublica. On the YouTube page where the group’s roughly dozen videos had been hosted since last year, a banner now says that “this account has been terminated due to multiple or severe violations of YouTube's policy prohibiting hate speech.” It’s not known how many views the videos had racked up.

Over the past week, the Anti-Defamation League and others called on YouTube to remove the Atomwaffen Division, whose propaganda videos explicitly advocated violence against minorities and showed open displays of Nazi pride, like unfurling a banner with swastikas reading “RESIST RACIAL ECLIPSE.” As recently as Monday, YouTube told the Daily Beast it would not be taking down the official Atomwaffen account.

READ: 3 neo-Nazis have been charged with attempted murder in Gainesville

The Atomwaffen Division has roughly 20 cells across the United States and its members have undergone Atomwaffen-organized weapons training in multiple locations, reported ProPublica, which obtained 250,000 internal Atomwaffen messages from the group’s private Discord chat channel. After 20-year-old Atomwaffen member Samuel Woodward killed a gay and Jewish high school classmate, Blaze Bernstein, in January, Atomwaffen members expressed support for Woodward in the Discord chat, calling him a “one-man gay Jew wrecking crew.”

Woodward has been charged with murder by the Orange County District Attorney, and he faces 26 years to life in prison.

While the official Atomwaffen YouTube account (as well as its Steam gaming account, according to Motherboard) is no longer active, VICE News was able to identify other uploaded versions of Atomwaffen propaganda on unofficial YouTube channels. A representative for YouTube did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The number of neo-Nazi groups grew by 22 percent in 2017, amid a recent rise in white supremacist groups, more broadly, across the U.S., according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Cover image: Still from an official Atomwaffen video first uploaded in 2017, posted by another YouTube user.