Videos Inciting Violence Removed From YouTube
Google announced it has removed hundreds of videos from YouTube featuring Anwar al-Awlaki, a religious cleric known for his attempts to incite violence against the West. While Google’s actions bring up questions concerning the freedom of speech, I applaud them for understanding the dangers inherent in such videos, and the importance of removing them.
Freedom of speech is a touchy subject, but when it’s a case of said speech leading to violence against one party or the other, in my mind, it’s unacceptable. YouTube, a website known for being open to the public and extremely welcoming to content of all kinds, took the correct action today in using its power as a private company to delineate what is acceptable content and what is not. Sure, there are some undertones of “Big Brother” going on here, but if you take the time to search through the millions of videos available for viewing, you’ll notice that they are very open with what is acceptable. I’ve yet to see any real censorship from YouTube that fails to meet the standards of free speech in the US. This is one case where YouTube/Google stepped up and did what made sense for the safety and security of the masses.
Thoughts on this? Do you think Google went too far, or is there a time and place for censorship when violence and public safety are on the line?
