THE IRISH LANGUAGE found itself making international headlines earlier this month.

It emerged that it had been used on the video site YouTube to mask the contents of pornographic videos.

This technique had led to inappropriate material remaining on the website for months.

YouTube have identified the error in the system – and have removed the explicit material.

Discovery

The material was identified by Irish language journalist Maitíú Ó Coimín of Tuairisc when searching for Irish films.

• People are using the Irish language to disguise porn on YouTube

He pointed out that it is “not clear what relevance these films have to Ireland or indeed the language”.

YouTube have an clear policy surrounding material on the site, stating that, it is “not for pornographic or sexually explicit content” and that “if this describes your video, even if it’s a video of yourself, don’t post it on YouTube, Also, be advised that we work closely with law enforcement and we report child exploitation”.

Situation now

The films appeared when users searched for the Irish word for film, ‘scannán’, or its plural, ‘scannáin’.

A search for that term still produces a number of results that appear to be pornographic films – although their entire titles are now in other languages including Spanish, French and Chinese.

Despite appearing to be pornographic films by their thumbnails – the majority of them actually contain no explicit adult content.

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