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YouTube to take down terrorist videos

September 19, 2008 — 9:35am ET | By Pete Wylie

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Earlier in the week, YouTube officially announced that it would modify its Community Guidelines and begin removing any videos on its site that "could incite violence."

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) was quick to attribute the online video site's decision to his previously unsuccessful push to have such videos banned. This past spring, Lieberman lobbied the site to take down terrorist training videos, but YouTube declined to modify its policy until now.

The senator asserts that these videos help terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda find and recruit new members, who are intrigued by the displays of shrouded figures packing automatic weapons. (Hmm, what does this make Fox's "24"?)

A line between protecting the public and allowing free expression has never been blurrier, given the myriad creative media people now have at their disposal. Using vague terminology such as "could incite violence" to remove content from the site could have a chilling effect on creators, who may choose to mirror the violence in the world in their artistic works. Broad interpretations of the new policy may cause such legitimate creative efforts to be removed from the site.

Censorship is a slippery slope, especially when making value judgments about the potential impact of a creative work such as a video. YouTube has different takedown policies for different countries; no Nazi videos in Germany, no guns in videos in the U.K. etc.

For more:
- check out computerworld.com's full article on YouTube's new policy