YouTube Makes Sen. Lieberman Happy With New Anti-Terrorism Guidelines

http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_YouT...ines_24367.html



By Dee Chisamera
17:00, September 15th 2008

In May this year, Sen. Joseph Lieberman demanded YouTube to block videos depicting assassinations, death of US soldiers, as well as weapon training and speeches that encourage violence and could be used as a tool to create homegrown terrorists.

Although the immediate response was not the one expected by Sen. Lieberman, four months later YouTube answered his prayers, posting a warning in its community guidelines meant to stop such videos from being uploaded on YouTube; however, this doesn’t mean YouTube’s policy has changed.

YouTube argued that it is impossible to preview all videos before allowing them to appear on the site, since approximately 13 hours of video are being uploaded every few minutes. That being said, the website will continue to rely on the user community to report the videos that break these guidelines.

Earlier this year, YouTube removed over 80 videos that violated content regulations, following Sen. Lieberman’s recommendations. However, the content uploaded on the website every minute remains hard to control.

According to YouTube’s revised guidelines, users are not encouraged to post videos depicting bomb making, or graphic and gratuitous violence. “If your video shows someone getting hurt, attacked, or humiliated, don’t post it,” YouTube warned, otherwise you will have your account banned.

Sen. Lieberman released a statement regarding YouTube’s new standards for videos, saying that YouTube represented a tool for Islamist terrorist organizations to recruit and train followers; however, the stronger community guidelines should decrease the number of videos on YouTube produced by al-Qaeda and affiliated Islamist terrorist organizations, he added.

Sen. Lieberman hailed YouTube’s decision to strengthen its standards, however, he also continued to urge Google, who owns YouTube, to remove all videos produced by Foreign Terrorist Organizations, not just those that violate community guidelines.

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