“YouTube Withdraws Cleric’s Videos”
By: John F. Burns and Miguel Helft, NY Times Technology Section
On Wednesday, November 3rd, according to the article, American and British officials removed videos on YouTube that were posted by cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. Though Anwar al-Awlaki is located in Yemen, his message, via YouTube, can be spread all over the world, which can potentially influence and recruit more terrorists against the West. His videos have been linked to a number of violent acts towards the West, including bombs and threats, some of which have resulted in the deaths of innocent people. The removal of his videos has resulted in the debate over whether this violates an individual’s freedom of expression. According to the article, Google, YouTube’s creator, stated that anything pertaining to straight-forward, religious purposes will be allowed on the site but any video that condones and inspires violence against an individual, group of individuals, or culture will most likely be taken off YouTube. It is important to take into consideration the influence of religion because a lot of the terrorist attacks have been fueled by religious viewpoints that go against what is considered “taboo” religious viewpoints of Western culture.
I definitely believe that such videos should be removed from YouTube and other websites that stream videos and information for the masses. The distribution and free access to such videos can result in serious injury or death for many individuals. The videos, though it falls under the category of “freedom of expression”, also falls under the category of “terrorist attacks” and should be investigated further and properly removed from the Internet superhighway. Also, since the videos’ creator is known, investigations and charges should be applied in order to find out other potential terrorists and possibly prevent future attacks.
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