YouTube’s algorithms were unable to detect “graphic” bestiality images for several months, some of which had millions of views, according to a report.
“Search YouTube for ‘girl and her horse’ and the platform will return more than 12 million results. Among the first 20 results are four videos promoted with thumbnails of women seemingly engaged in sexual acts with horses,” claimed BuzzFeed in their report. “The top search return for the query? A video titled ‘Fantastic Girl and Her Horse in My Village’ promoted with a half-blurred thumbnail of a woman being mounted by a horse with an erection.”
“The ‘Fantastic Girl and Her Horse in My Village’ video itself does not feature any bestiality. It’s largely footage of a woman bathing and brushing a horse. But clicking on it triggers YouTube’s recommendation engine, which promptly serves up dozens more animal videos — many with thumbnails featuring graphic bestiality,” they continued. “One such thumbnailed video, published by a channel called ‘ALL ANIMAL,’ had amassed 2.3 million views at the time of this writing.”
BuzzFeed reported that most of the videos “feature women in sundresses playing with or caring for animals like horses and dogs,” while “some feature upskirt angles and crotch shots of women as they bathe or brush horses and dogs.”
“Without needing to search, YouTube’s recommendation algorithm pointed BuzzFeed News to dozens of accounts, each with multiple videos featuring explicit bestiality thumbnails,” the report proclaimed, while some bestiality accounts also “appear to mix disturbing kids videos with the graphic thumbnail content,” such as videos about toys, coloring, and Peppa Pig.
In a statement, a YouTube spokesman declared, “These images are abhorrent to us and have no place on YouTube.”
“We have strict policies against misleading thumbnails, and violative content flagged to us by BuzzFeed has been removed,” the spokesman added. “We’re working quickly to do more than ever to tackle abuse on our platform, and that includes developing better tools for detecting inappropriate and misleading metadata and thumbnails so we can take fast action against them.”
Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington, or like his page at Facebook.