IP Democracy: Offensive Videos on YouTube -- Militants v. Atheists

Like a double-edged sword, YouTube can be used for both good and evil. It can expose human rights abuses and foster positive political communication, or it can be used as clearinghouse for videos made by violent extremists. This AP piece deals with the rise of YouTube-distributed videos by Islamic militants.

The videos show bombings, sniper attacks and more. Last week, prosecutors in Britain charged six suspects in an alleged plot to kidnap and kill a British soldier. The conspirators planned to post video of the kidnapping and murder online.

It’s difficult for authorities to discover and remove the videos. YouTube has a policy of taking down patently offensive videos, but it has to be notified of their existence first.

“YouTube has clear terms and conditions which prohibit, amongst other things, hateful content,” the company said in a statement. “Our community has been highly effective in policing the site, and YouTube removes videos if our community flags them as inappropriate.”

Sometimes, however, YouTube can go too far in reacting to reports of “offensive” videos. The site is facing some heat today for yanking down video from a relatively thoughtful atheist, Nick Gisburne, who posted a slide-show containing violent quotes from the Koran.

The slide-show features nothing but quotes and contains no commentary, no calls for action, no denigrating statements. Not only did YouTube yank the video based on complaints, it also cancelled all of the guy’s accounts. John Battelle has the run-down here, along with a video from Gisburne, who seems genuinely surprised and stricken by YouTube’s action.

Ron at Xooglers, a blog written by ex-Googlers, takes the appropriately dim view of what seems to be an overreaction by YouTube.

This really bothers me for four reasons. First, to deem quotations from a holy text to be “inappropriate content” is outrageous on its face. Second, Gisburne was given no warning. Third, YouTube didn’t just delete the video in question, they deleted Gisburne’s entire account. And fourth, this makes a mockery of Google’s “don’t be evil” slogan. There can be no possible reason for this action other than caving to intimidation, and sanctimonious cowardice in the face of oppression is a particularly pernicious breed of evil.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on February 12, 2007 9:15 AM to IP Democracy