A graphic video from a Pennsylvania man accused of beheading his father that circulated for hours on YouTube has put a spotlight yet again on gaps in social media companies’ ability to prevent horrific postings from spreading across the web. Police said Wednesday that they charged Justin Mohn , 32, with first-degree murder and abusing a corpse after he beheaded his father, Michael, in their Bucks County home and publicized it in a 14-minute YouTube video that anyone, anywhere could see.
A spokesperson for YouTube told CBS News that the platform “has strict policies prohibiting graphic violence and violent extremism.”
“The video was removed for violating our graphic violence policy and Justin Mohn’s channel was terminated in line with our violent extremism policies,” the spokesperson said. “Our teams are closely tracking to remove any re-uploads of the video.”
The video-sharing site says it uses a combination of artificial intelligence and human moderators to monitor its platform. YouTube told CBS News that in the third quarter of 2023, the site took down 8.1 million videos for violating its policies — and over 95% of those videos were first flagged by automated systems.