YouTube says it will update harassment policies after it allows videos with anti-gay slurs to remain on site

YouTube says it disabled comments on tens of millions of videos over the past week (AP)

YouTube has tried to clarify its policy on harassment amid criticism of how it dealt with videos that subjected one of its users to a string of anti-gay insults.

The company says it will be making alterations to its policy in an attempt to deal with the outcry over two of its users.

The recent controversy flared up after one of YouTube's creators, Carlos Maza, drew attention to the fact that another user called Steven Crowder had repeatedly used offensive anti-gay language while attacking his videos.

YouTube initially said that it had looked into the issue and decided not to do anything, posting a Twitter thread in which it explained its reasoning.

Now it says it will look to change those policies, while not changing them immediately in any substantive way.

"Today has generated a lot of questions and confusion," the company wrote on Twitter. "We know it hasn't been easy for everyone.

"Going forward, we'll be taking a closer look at our own harassment policies, with the aim to update them."

The company did say that it had suspended monetization on Mr Crowder's videos. But it would allow him to receive money from the company again if he addressed a series of issues, including the fact that his channel links out to a store that sells T-shirts reading "Socialism is for Fags".

YouTube acknowledged that users were angry about its decision to leave up the offensive videos. But it said it had made the decision to do so because those videos can sometimes represent "valuable speech".

"Not everyone will agree with the calls we make — some will say we haven’t done enough; others will say we’ve gone too far," it wrote in a blog post. "And, sometimes, a decision to leave an offensive video on the site will look like us defending people who have used their platforms and audiences to bully, demean, marginalize or ignore others.

"If we were to take all potentially offensive content down, we’d be losing valuable speech — speech that allows people everywhere to raise their voices, tell their stories, question those in power, and participate in the critical cultural and political conversations of our day."

YouTube's statement is the first on the issue to be attributed to a person inside the company, rather than the company or a spokesperson. The blog post was attributed to Chris Dale, the company's head of communications.