Northern Ireland’s Ulster Unionists have strongly criticised YouTube after the platform removed videos of some loyalists band parades.

The BBC reports that videos featuring the Red Hand Defenders were removed. The loyalist paramilitary group is known for the murder of lawyer Rosemary Nelson by car bomb in 1999, although it also killed a policewoman and Catholic man the year before.

YouTube has said that while many forms of cultural expression are allowed on its website, it does not permit content that promotes ‘proscribed terror organisations’.

Cultural value

The Red Hand Defenders have said YouTube’s decision is “unforgivable”, adding: “Thousands of hours of documented footage of marching bands through the work of volunteers disappeared overnight.”

Councillor Trevor Wilson, chairman of the Ulster Unionist Councillors' Association, added: "The local band scene is thriving and is a key part of unionist culture, providing a great deal of colour and musical skill throughout the summer months, and is the source of pleasure and enjoyment for tens of thousands of people.

"There is a great deal of anger out there that a number of accounts have been closed without explanation or warning, and hundreds of hours of footage lost as a result. I am therefore calling on YouTube to explain why they chose to take the action they have and to re-instate the footage they have removed.”

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