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Drill music videos being uploaded to porn websites to avoid YouTube ban, police say

Senior officer suggests genre is becoming 'more subtle' amid rising commercial success 

Lizzie Dearden
Home Affairs Correspondent
Wednesday 04 December 2019 18:31 GMT
Police say some videos are inciting violence between rival groups in London
Police say some videos are inciting violence between rival groups in London

Drill music videos are being uploaded to porn websites to evade crackdowns by mainstream platforms, police have said.

Around 400 videos have been removed from YouTube in the three-and-a-half years since detectives started to push against tracks they blamed for inciting violence.

Senior officers argue the videos, which frequently contained graphic threats between London gangs, glamorise violence, but fans argued they reflect artists’ experiences.

The Metropolitan Police said increased cooperation with Google means videos flagged by its officers now disappear from YouTube in less than an hour.

But Temporary Detective Chief Superintendent Mike West added: “We are seeing videos pop up on other channels, pornography platforms. They're being forced off the mainstream channels into other places - we've seen drill tracks appearing on Pornhub."

Drill music has been shifting into the mainstream with its increasing popularity, with some artists enjoying commercial success and YouTube videos viewed millions of times.

Like controversial restrictions previously aimed at grime and R&B events in London, operations against the genre have drawn accusations of discrimination, racism and censorship.

Writing for The Independent last year, Dummy Mag editor Yemi Abiade said it was “unfounded” to blame drill for violence that has existed for decades.

“Ignoring these problems breed contempt, giving birth to more violence,” he added. “Regardless of London’s murder rate, drill will continue to offer a voice to those without one because, for many of them, it’s all they have to survive.”

T/Det Ch Supt West insisted police were not trying to “squash down the genre”, and pointed to the existence of thousands of drill videos on YouTube as proof that officers were only targeting those “that generate a threat”.

“[Artists] can mention the reality of life growing up in a sink estate, which should be told, but it was when it was going into real violence that we stepped in,” the officer added.

Speaking to journalists at Scotland Yard on Wednesday, he suggested that drill music was becoming “more subtle” as it gains a mainstream audience.

“We are now seeing far less mention of calling out other gangs in drill music,” he added.

“There millions of hits on videos with no mention of violence. They are being signed by big labels and there are success stories coming through, some of these guys are making millions.”

Drill rapper 'Incognito' - real name Sidique Kamara - of the group Moscow 17 was stabbed to death in August 2018 

T/Det Ch Supt West said although some videos still contain threats, they are not necessarily verbalised and may only be gang signs or gestures.

“We’re not seeing that all drill is now commercial or acceptable – it will never be acceptable to some sections of the public because it’s an aggressive style of music – but there’s a lot of other aggressive styles of music as well,” he added.

“The threat [from drill] has not gone, but it has become easier for us to manage and allowed us to look at other threat and risk, whether it’s on social media platforms or elsewhere.”

The push against drill was headed by Scotland Yard’s Operation Domain, which started in September 2015 but has since been replaced by a unit looking at all forms of gang-related threats on different online platforms.

The government’s first-ever Serious Violence Strategy did not name drill music specifically as a driver of a nationwide increase in stabbings, but said social media had created “an almost unlimited opportunity for rivals to antagonise each other” in ways viewed by a huge audience.

The document said videos and posts “glamorise weapons and gang life”, while inciting attacks and possibly leading to “cycles of tit-for-tat violence”.

The strategy was heavily criticised for omitting a leaked report by the Home Office warning police budget cuts had “likely contributed” to rising violence and “encouraged” offenders.

At least 129 people have been killed in London so far this year according to Metropolitan Police figures, which do not include last Friday’s terror attack.

Police said while stabbing numbers are broadly level, shootings have fallen by 35 per cent year-on year following proactive operations against gangs and organised crime groups.

A spokesperson for Pornhub said: “Along with others in the UK, we share the deep concern about this issue and do not want our platform used to incite violence. We will continue to work with authorities to aid in identifying and removing any content that does so.”

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