The BBC broadcaster Jeremy Vine says that YouTube "don't care" about abusive videos posted on the platform by convicted Nottingham stalker Alex Belfield. In an interview on BBC Two, Mr Vine said that several videos about him uploaded by Belfield were still on the platform.
The BBC Radio 2 and Channel 5 presenter was one of the victims of Belfield's stalking, which included his home address being published online and Belfield supporters being encouraged to call into his radio show. Belfield was sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court earlier this month, with a sentence of 5 years and 26 weeks being handed down.
Belfield, 42, of Mapperley, was told that he will serve half of that time on all of the four charges he was convicted of. Two of the charges Belfield was convicted of were for "simple stalking".
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Belfield also had indefinite restraining orders imposed on him in relation to four women over charges that he was found not guilty of. Giving evidence during the trial, Mr Vine described the impact that Belfield's actions had and labelled him the "Jimmy Saville of trolling."
Speaking to Victoria Derbyshire on BBC Two's Newsnight, Mr Vine said that physical stalking did not compare to the experience that Belfield had put him through. He said: "I had a physical stalker once. I had somebody turn up outside Radio 2 and try and follow me home.
"That was a picnic compared to this because what happened in this case is that you're fired on from all directions. Every time you open your phone he's there, every time you turn on your computer he's there.
"I was afraid of what he could do to my family. I had to think this through, I could see that the YouTube channel was a fountain of hate so I had to take it seriously, I've got two teenager daughters, I can't be casual about it. I felt broken. It just took me into a really unhealthy space, in a way it took me into his weird brain."
But turning to YouTube and Twitter and the platform given to Belfield by the social media companies, Mr Vine said he was "disgusted" by their behaviour. Discussing YouTube in particular, Mr Vine said: "Half of the videos about me are still up there.
"The fact that YouTube hosts this stuff, they have no responsibility, they don't care, they don't give a t***. I'm sorry for my language but I am disgusted by their lack of values."
In relation to why it still hosted Alex Belfield videos on its platform, YouTube has previously said that his channel, The Voice of Reason, was demonetised in February for violating its harassment policy. This means that Belfield was unable to earn cash from adverts being shown during his videos.
A spokesperson for YouTube said: "Monetisation on the Voice of Reason channel remains suspended for violating our Creator Responsibility policy. If we see that a creator's off-platform behaviour harms our users, community, employees or ecosystem, we take action to protect the community."
Responding to Mr Vine's Newsnight interview, YouTube told the programme that it had removed several videos in violation of its community standards. Twitter declined to give a comment to the programme in response to the interview.
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