F You-Tube
Occassionally, the New York Times surprises to the upside. Today they delivered a refreshingly candid account of You Tube censorship…
A Slippery Slope of Censorship at YouTube
By TOM ZELLER Jr.
LAST week, as YouTube continued its recent campaign to spit-shine its image and, perhaps, to look a little less ragtag to potential buyers (including Google, which was said to be eyeing the upstart in the $1.6 billion range), the company took a scrub bucket to some questionable political graffiti on its servers, including a video entry from the doyenne of right-wing blogs, Michelle Malkin (michellemalkin.com).
YouTube users can flag any video as containing pornography, mature content or graphic violence, depicting illegal acts or being racially or ethnically offensive. A video is removed â?? as Ms. Malkinâ??s was on Sept. 28 â?? only if a review by the companyâ??s customer support department agrees that it is inappropriate, or that the video is on its face in violation of the siteâ??s terms of use.
But the incident raised some questions about the fine line YouTubeâ??s administrators walk when they decide to respond to usersâ?? complaints about contributions to the site â?? a mechanism that is fraught with the potential for vindictive shenanigans.
Now that Google has bought You Tube, it looks like we can expect more of the same going forward.
October 9th, 2006 at 10:02 pm
well because youtube is a website where people come to share videos, and Michelle Malkin bashing muslims and anti war sympathizers is maybe something thats ok at fox news but youtube is anti discrimination of any type.If Michelle Malkin seems to be so desperate to give her hate message out, she should look for another place then youtube:)
October 10th, 2006 at 6:04 am
Dev, are you a native speaker of English? How old are you?
October 10th, 2006 at 6:12 am
Stephen, are you a paedophile?
October 10th, 2006 at 6:32 am
Nice ad hominem, Stephen. And racist too. Bonus points!
October 10th, 2006 at 7:00 am
Dev: you do realize that YouTube ALLOWS racist and bigotted tripe out of the middle east including showing murders of non-muslims at the hands of so-called muslims. But CENSORS non-violent videos complaining about such attrocities.
There’s a double standard. YouTube has become Dhimmi. Or however it is spelled. Praise the pig-fornicator allah. You can’t spell Muhammed without HAM!
October 10th, 2006 at 7:59 am
Hey Bob, didn’t you die of cancer? That means you can shut up now.
October 10th, 2006 at 8:12 am
If YouTube is truly against discrimination of any kind, then it should also remove TV clips from shows like Mind of Mencia and the Colbert Report. As funny as they are, they’re definitely discriminitory and reasonably full of “questionable political graffiti”. The only difference between those shows and Michelle Malkin’s diatribes (other than party lines) is that the shows also make people laugh.
October 10th, 2006 at 8:14 am
this thread makes me want to kill humanity.
October 10th, 2006 at 9:20 am
Bob is ABSOLUTELY spot on! There is definitely a double standard when YouTube deals with political issues. Showing Christians and Jews being slaughtered for nothing by Muslims is a-ok for YouTube, but when someone tries to criticize the Muslim terroristsâ?? actions, oh no! says YouTube. That would just be racist towards the terrorists!
October 10th, 2006 at 10:56 am
F.Y.I.
http://www.myspace.com/grammnazi
October 10th, 2006 at 8:47 pm
haha native english speaker eh ?
typical right wing cons when they cant come up with any comebacks they go for the racial insults.
and to the other responses: Colbert is a comedy show he makes fun of everyone and doesn’t target a minority group or any group in specific,i have watched him make fun of democrats and other groups too.
Youtube does not show videos that are to graphic to view hahaha who said that youtube shows vids of muslims killing americans? I dare you to show me those clips
October 10th, 2006 at 8:49 pm
haha and i did not make that’pedophile’ comment it was another Dev i dont need to insult someone when i am out of reasons:)
January 28th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
[...] 1. Will users stay with the recently scrubbed and censored Youtube or will they migrate to other alternatives? [...]
October 25th, 2008 at 5:29 am
Amoxicillin….
Amoxicillin for acne….