Comments on: Should Google be censoring videos just because they are linked to violence?

By: Felipe Sahagún

Felipe Sahagún — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 21:01:03 +0000

Let judges decide what can be published a posteriori if there are complains, Otherwise we are admitting censorship and it is the end of democracy as we know it.

By: Alex

Alex — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 20:15:26 +0000

What a weakly-written argument: the video in question is a direct attack on the beliefs of over 1.4 billion people, and is filled with fallacies and hate speech. It not only violates Google’s ToS, but also US Hate Speech Laws.

By: txpatriot

txpatriot — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 15:41:20 +0000

Very interesting.

When an artist offends Muslims, our government condemns the artist. But when an artist offends Christians, our government FUNDS the artist (see Robert Mapplethorpe and Andres Serrano)! And funny how the PC-police who want to curb “hate speech” when it offends Muslims are perfectly happy to cheer that speech if it offends Christians (again, see Mapplethorpe and Serrano).

Gotta love it!

By: Lynne Gregg

Lynne Gregg — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 18:50:36 +0000

Great question you pose here. As I listened to reports of violence directed at our Embassies over the past couple of days, I wondered if YouTube would take action to curate (or censor, depending on your viewpoint) their content.

Yes, YouTube/Google does have the right to accept, reject, and delete any content as they see fit. As a mother of a teenager (and a Mom who regulates content), I am quite familiar with the pile of junk that’s on YouTube and am careful to ensure my kid’s not contributing to it and consuming content that has some value. There is a lot of educational material there that has great merit.

I think the question is really about whether the company should introduce some QUALITY CONTROL over what gets dumped on their site? It’s much easier and cheaper not to do so and simply let anyone upload whatever they like without regard to value or accuracy of that content or the likelihood that it might incite violence. How about those videos of kids being bullied, beaten, and even killed. My point is, that stuff simply shouldn’t be there. There has to be SOME QUALITY STANDARD.

Recent research shows that the majority of teens use YouTube as their main source for news and entertainment. But, really, how credible is YouTube as a news source? After all, network television has SOME quality standards in programming. iTunes maintains some quality standards, too. So, why shouldn’t YouTube set a bar on standards for content? I think there is a big difference between censorship and curatorship, but the bottom line is, a media company does have the right (and some might say the obligation) to control quality.

By: JackNightingale

JackNightingale — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 13:02:00 +0000

YouTube removes videos they don’t like all the time. Is it wrong? Yes, I think it is – but Google can do whatever they want because they own the company. But until you yourself have a video taken down by them, you’ll never understand how violent it feels when it happens.

And if you’ve never had a video taken down – then you’ve never really tried to do anything.

By: Vladimir

Vladimir — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 10:46:21 +0000

It was definitely an impulsive but useless move as the majority of radicals haven’t even watched the video itself, it was just one more motive to show their hatred for people of other beliefs and and specifically the U.S.

By: markleiser.phd.law

markleiser.phd.law — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 08:21:44 +0000

Reblogged this on #Hashtag - Thoughts on Law, Technology, the Internet, and Social Media and commented: Should Google be censoring videos just because they are linked to violence? Google says it blocked viewers in Egypt and Libya from seeing a controversial video clip on YouTube, after the video was allegedly linked to violence in both of those countries. But should Google be censoring content without even a request from a government or court?

By: Rich

Rich — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 05:46:59 +0000

Exactly. If Google wants to pull a clip, they can do that. if you want to call it “censoring,” that’s your term for it.

By: don

don — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 02:31:19 +0000

Will they also not provide links to Jackass-type videos? Anyone who searches for examples of violence can find it, even though the person doing the searching may be only ten years old. Some things do not need to be protected under free speech laws.

By: shim shimuzu

shim shimuzu — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 02:04:48 +0000

The answer lies somewhere in Google’s terms of service. Maybe the video breached specific guidlines about “hatred” or maybe the ToS reserve the right to do what they want. Google is not a government,