Until recently, visitors to the Africah channel run by the Synagogue Church of All Nations, a megachurch operating in Lagos, Nigeria, could see videos featuring T. B. Joshua, the church's charismatic leader, conducting exorcisms in which he "cast out the demons of homosexuality" on supposedly willing volunteers. Until Open Democracy, a human rights advocacy group based in the United Kingdom. alerted YouTube concerning the content of those videos, including hate speech and violence aimed at the people Joshua was supposedly attempting to "cure." In reviewing seven clips of exorcisms shown online between 2016 and 2020, Open Democracy identified multiple instances of Joshua "engaging in violent exorcism." This includes one clip showing him pushing one woman's head causing her to hit the floor and then slapping her repeatedly, along with another woman identified only as "her wife." The clip then fast forwards to a week later when the first woman proclaims that she feels “no affection whatsoever” for her former partner due to the preacher's actions. “Now I have affections for men,” she added.
Since sexual minorities have no legal protections in Nigeria, Joshua and his church enjoy enormous popularity with no real restriction on how he conducts exorcisms. As a result, he is extremely powerful and his YouTube had 1.8 million subscribers until Open Democracy filed its complaint. As YouTube's guidelines specifically “prohibits content which alleges that someone is mentally ill, diseased, or inferior because of their membership in a protected group including sexual orientation," they concluded that Joshua and his church crossed the line and terminated the channel. A similar campaign directed against the Church's Facebook account led to a partial ban on some content although the account remains in place.
The YouTube decision was praised by other human rights groups as a positive step given the powerful role that social media often plays in spreading hate speech. A statement by Daina Rudusa of OutRight Action International stated that "It is great to see social media platforms take a greater role in tackling these harmful practices by banning accounts spouting hate speech and promoting conversion practices." While violence aimed at people belonging to sexual minorities remains prevalent in Nigeria with few daring to be out about their sexuality, the current YouTube ban represents a positive step preventing the spread of hate speech elsewhere. At least for now.
Comments