Senator saves YouTube from al Qaeda
Terrorists violate terms of service
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Senator Joseph Lieberman claims to have struck a mighty blow against the forces of al Qaeda this week by pressuring YouTube to forbid users from uploading terrorist training videos.
The popular video site updated its "Community Guidelines" yesterday, warning terrorist cells they're at serious risk of violating the site's Terms of Service — and may even face having their YouTube accounts permanently terminated.
The Connecticut Senator celebrated victory for his three month campaign in a press release circulated September 11 titled, "Google Tightens Standards for YouTube Videos in Response to Lieberman's Pressure."
"YouTube was being used by Islamist terrorist organizations to recruit and train followers via the Internet and to incite terrorist attacks around the world, including right here in the United States, and Google should be commended for recognizing that," Lieberman said in a statement. "I expect these stronger community guidelines to decrease the number of videos on YouTube produced by al Qaeda and affiliated Islamist terrorist organizations."
Google makes no mention of Lieberman in its community blog outlining the policy change.
"We've updated the Community Guidelines to address some of the most common questions users ask us about inappropriate content. Included in the update are a few things to steer clear of, like not directly inciting violence or encouraging other users to violate the Terms of Service."
Lieberman writes he is grateful for the response, but continues to urge Google to remove all videos produced by "Foreign Terrorist Organizations", not just those that violate its community guidelines.
Intriguingly, his efforts may have also unintentionally thwarted another subversive group threatening Lady Liberty from the shadows. YouTube's revised policy now forbids "things like instructional bomb making, ninja assassin training, sniper attacks, videos that train terrorists, or tips on illegal street racing. Any depictions like these should be educational or documentary and shouldn’t be designed to help or encourage others to imitate them." [Emphasis is ours.]
No doubt another example of underhanded rider legislation by the pirate lobby group. ®
COMMENTS
No shoving, folks - plenty of stupidity to go 'round
Clearly, Lieberman is an ass (no news there), and Google is mocking him. Ninja training? It's a joke, people. The YouTube ToS are effectively just as permissive as they always were; YT could always take down any video they wanted, and terminate anyone's account on any pretext.
Give the Gevil Gempire some credit. They're hardly going to let a tubthumper like Lieberman push them around. Many of their practices may be suspect, but I see no reason to complain about this one.
And this story shows First Amendment protections working exactly as they're supposed to. Freedom of the press belongs to the press, not J Random Idiot who submits something to it. Lieberman had to *ask* Google to change the YT ToS because we still have a sliver of First Amendment rights left.
In sum, Lieberman had to look like an idiot, grovelling for an impotent change, and Google gave it to him with a smirk to let anyone who's paying attention know that they don't give a damn what he wants. If only the rest of the War on Freedom were reduced to this sort of farce...
I know that I'm just pissing in the wind, but...
It is a good idea. They're not talking about a widespread takedown of your free speech. They're talking about youtube reserving the right to remove stuff when it's egregious. It's really a 'no shit, Sherlock' thing, as opposed to a widespread invasion of your privacy/free speech like the placing of video cameras everywhere with some wanker of a local cop watching every move you make. In terms of things to protest, this just doesn't score as high as something as awful as that. Good thing it isn't being done anywhere in the free world.
You can still carry in with the makng of ninja pirate squirrel training videos. No one will complain about your carrying western civilisation forward with such fine contributions. Personally, I think the squirrels should have jet packs and chain saws.
Ninja Training...
YouTube bans? HA!!! As there is free an unfettered access to dodgy 80's films like Ninja Terminator and Revenge of the Golden Ninja, my ninja training will continue.
By watching these over and over, I have already learned how to change into a (yellow) ninja costume (which I didn't have with me, complete with an arsenal of sword, staff, bow, throwing stars, knives, nunchaku etc) in the midst of a backflip, whilst making a loud **SPANGGGG!!!!** noise, then badly lipsynching everything I say.
<- pirates beware!
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