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Free speech or hate speech? Emma Bowler says some web content smacks of the freakshow

Some internet content comes precariously close to giving offence; some makes no bones about it.

One Disability Now reader was horrified at clips on YouTube of disabled babies. “No wonder young people grow up to see disabled people as a form of entertainment,” she said, “when YouTube performs the same function as a circus freakshow.”

YouTube’s guidelines tell users: “YouTube is not a shock site.” It invites free speech but it doesn’t permit hate speech: “Speech that attacks or demeans a group based on… disability.”

Yet videos of babies and children with conditions such as Harlequin type ichthyosis, anencephaly and hydrocephalus, all causing major disfigurements, are mocked, laughed at and called vile names. It’s all too easy to find comments after these videos saying, “Just kill it, it’s a mutant” – and worse.

Commenting on this, Winnie Coutinho, head of campaigns and communications at Changing Faces, the charity for people with disfigurements, said: “These films are voyeuristic and, in our view, infringe the concept of respect for the basic dignity of an individual; they use words that encourage ridicule and disgust of people with disfigurements and there are possibly issues around consent from families and individuals whose images are being used in this way on the internet.”

A YouTube spokesperson said: “YouTube has clear policies that prohibit inappropriate content on the site...When users feel content is inappropriate they can flag it and our staff then review it as quickly as possible to see if it violates our terms of use.”

So the message is: if you see something demeaning, complain.