YouTube is facing allegations that it has censored Macklemore's pro-Palestine protest song, "Hind's Hall."
The rapper, formally known as Ben Haggerty, released the track on May 6 on social media in response to the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip. The song's title refers to the name given to Columbia University's Hamilton Hall by student protestors to honor six-year-old Hind Rajab, who was killed by Israel's military in February. The accompanying video, which Macklemore also dropped on Monday, has garnered more than 27 million views on X/Twitter alone.
On YouTube, where the video has more than half a million views, users encounter the following message before clicking play: "The following content may contain graphic or violent imagery. Viewer discretion is advised." Newsweek reported that users under the age of 18 or viewers who aren't signed into an account are unable to watch the clip.
HIND’S HALL. Once it’s up on streaming all proceeds to UNRWA. pic.twitter.com/QqZEKmzwZI
— Macklemore (@macklemore) May 6, 2024
Macklemore in the song argues that the campus protests, which have steadily unfurled across the U.S. in recent weeks, are not the problem. "It’s what they’re protesting/It goes against what our country is funding/Block the barricade until Palestine is free," he sings, also calling out the ongoing feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, whom he claims are "complicit in their platform of silence."
