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October 04, 2006
Apparently YouTube will ban some things.
...things like videos attacking calls for murder:
I asked YouTube to inform me of the exact nature of the "inappropriateness" of the video. But no response. The banning of my innocuous video is not an isolated incident. Anti-jihad YouTube users have reported having their videos yanked and accounts suspended...
As we've said in the past the solution for speech you don't like? More speech, namely a video posted questioning the ban. Here is the link.
Strangely enough videos of American soldiers being killed apparently do not rise to that level of "inappropriateness".
The wildly popular video-sharing Web site YouTube.com has dozens of videos purporting to show individual American soldiers being killed in Iraq, in what amounts to snuff films, overlaid with music and insurgent slogans.Some of the videos, including ones of American soldiers purportedly being picked off by snipers or being blown up by improvised explosive devices, have been viewed tens of thousands of times each in the past few months. Some are posted in YouTube's "news and blogs" category, but others are listed under "entertainment" and even "comedy."
The response has been well underwhelming:
Calls and e-mails to YouTube requesting an interview regarding the war videos went unreturned. The Web site's "terms of use" and "safety tips" sections make it clear that the organization -- which describes itself as a "consumer media company" and "entertainment destination" -- expects users to police themselves.The "safety tips" states that "YouTube doesn't allow videos with nudity, graphic violence or hate" and advises users who find violations to flag the videos and report them to YouTube.
Some of the graphic war images are flagged as objectionable, but come into view after the user clicks on a box acknowledging that the video contains graphic content.
Almost makes one want to cheer for this suit.
Posted by Peter at October 4, 2006 11:36 AM