YouTube has deleted more than 30 music videos that Metropolitan Police commissioner Cressida Dick asked the website to take down.
As the BBC reports, a number of the clips appear to be related to the UK drill scene and the Met Police has singled out these videos as they claim that they are playing a part in a surge in murders and violent crime in London. She requested that YouTube delete videos which were believed to glamourise violence.
In the past two years police have asked YouTube to take down around 60 music videos, because they claimed that they incited violence. Just over 30 of them have now been removed following this action.
"The gangs try to outrival each other with the filming and content – what looks like a music video can actually contain explicit language with gangs threatening each other," the Metropolitan Police’s Mike West told the BBC.
1011, a group of Drill musicians, have launched an online petition to try to stop YouTube from taking down its videos – it has attracted over 5,000 signatures so far.
A YouTube spokesman told the BBC that the company has "developed policies specifically to help tackle videos related to knife crime in the UK and are continuing to work constructively with experts on this issue".
