[ April 26, 2024 ]
YouTube left al-Awlaki’s videos up for years, only succumbing to public pressure and removing them now, after he has incited numerous jihad terror attacks. Yet my account was recently terminated because of a 2014 video entitled, “Al Qaeda and Islamic State flags in London’s tunnels.” The video shows jihadis displaying al Qaeda and Islamic state flags on one of London’s tunnels (see this). So telling the truth gets your account terminated at YouTube, but Anwar al-Awlaki’s calls for killing the kuffar have been just fine until too many people noticed and YouTube finally had to act.
You fought back and won and my YouTube account was reinstated. But I am still concerned about others who are suspended and don’t have a large social media presence to deploy. We must consider anti-trust laws or legislation to penalize social media giants who suppress our unalienable rights.
And we should make sure that YouTube knows that we remember how long it took them to get around to removing al-Awlaki’s videos.
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“In ‘Watershed Moment,’ YouTube Blocks Extremist Cleric’s Message,” by Scott Shane, New York Times, November 12, 2017:
WASHINGTON — For eight years, the jihadist propaganda of Anwar al-Awlaki has helped shape a generation of American terrorists, including the Fort Hood gunman, the Boston Marathon bombers and the perpetrators of massacres in San Bernardino, Calif., and Orlando, Fla.
And YouTube, the world’s most popular video site, has allowed hundreds of hours of Mr. Awlaki’s talks to be within easy reach of anyone with a phone or computer.
Now, under growing pressure from governments and counterterrorism advocates, YouTube has drastically reduced its video archive of Mr. Awlaki, an American cleric who remains the leading English-language jihadist recruiter on the internet six years after he was killed by a United States drone strike. Using video fingerprinting technology, YouTube now flags his videos automatically and human reviewers block most of them before anyone sees them, company officials say.
A search for “Anwar al-Awlaki” on YouTube this fall found more than 70,000 videos, including his life’s work, from his early years as a mainstream American imam to his later years with Al Qaeda in Yemen.
Today the same search turns up just 18,600 videos, and the vast majority are news reports about his life and death, debates over the legality of his killing, refutations of his work by scholars or other material about him. A small number of clips of Mr. Awlaki speaking disappeared after The New York Times sent an inquiry about the change of policy last week.
“It’s a watershed moment on the question of whether we’re going to allow the unchecked proliferation of cyberjihad,” said Mark D. Wallace, the chief executive of the Counter Extremism Project, a research organization that has long called for Mr. Awlaki’s recordings to be removed from the web. “You just don’t want to make it easy for people to listen to a guy who wants to harm us.”
Mr. Wallace, a former diplomat, said the fact that much of Mr. Awlaki’s YouTube presence was mainstream lectures on Islamic history did not justify keeping it on the site. “It’s an insult to Islam to say the teaching of the religion can’t stand the loss of a preacher who was also the leading propagandist of jihad in English,” he said.
The policy shift at YouTube comes in the face of a growing chorus of criticism for internet companies, including Facebook, Twitter and Google, which owns YouTube. They had long argued that they were merely neutral platforms with no responsibility for what users posted.
But they were quick to remove copyrighted material, child pornography and beheading videos, for example, which posed an obvious threat to their business. They have slowly stepped up the removal of extremist content, spurred on after 2014 by the Islamic State’s use of Twitter to recruit fighters….
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18 Comments
6 years ago
Anwar is a good muslim. He follows the example of Mohammed. It’s only their culture. The neolibturds are gonna love islam. They get to be dominated in the way they need. Especially these out of control feminists. Their gonna learn how to be a good wife who fully submits with the Quranic doctrine of a b!t ch slap.
6 years ago
I bet it broke Youtube’s heart to delete their Jihad buddies’ video
6 years ago
Reply to
Jerry Dobson
Agree. Buy why blame yourtube ? Unless there is concerted effort by patriots, conservatives to go after those who put up these videos and demand its removal why will they remove it.
But we must thank this Airlines that decided to give this jihadi taste of law http://tinyurl.com/y782l6r8
Its Hilarious !
6 years ago
Reply to
Suresh
Who else is there to blame… but youtube… for allowing Islamic Jihad propaganda to dwell on their creation. It’s there responsibility to not to be traitors. Except, they are.
6 years ago
Reply to
Jerry Dobson
They will remove videos only when there is enough folks complaining about it . Left/jihadi are very active in filing complaints .
conservatives are too lazy to do it and then expect youtube to do it on their own !
6 years ago
Reply to
Suresh
I do believe the Jihadists and their allies the leftists are far more active in their radical agenda but it should only take one complaint to point out Islamic terrorist videos and have them removed unless the people running youtube are OK with it. Only if the cries get loud enough will they…..finally…..begrudgingly….. angrily…..delete them. They….are….the enemy.
6 years ago
Reply to
Jerry Dobson
one complaint system would simply make it too easy to remove videos and create havoc. Let’s say I don;t Like another channel that is in my niche and above my channel in ranking .
I can make false complaint and get his videos removed !
6 years ago
Reply to
Suresh
What are you talking about? It should only take one person to point out to youtube that the Islamic terrorists are using youtube for their propaganda and youtube to remove it right away. How about beheading videos, are you all for a vote system for that as well? Because if it was up to the traitors at youtube I’m sure they’d be all for it.
6 years ago
Reply to
Jerry Dobson
it works on vote system. they do not take up videos for evaluation for 1-2 negative flagings.
6 years ago
Reply to
Suresh
There is no doubt in my mind the Jihad videos get lots and lots of flags, it’s just that the traitors who run youtube are OK with it.
6 years ago
Reply to
Jerry Dobson
Not their “heart” (which they never had) but their pockets. I am almost certain that somebody “sponsored” those videos so they keep them as long the could.
6 years ago
More islamophobia. Now how will the world be appalled and disgusted by islam? The lame stream media will not step in to fill the gap.
D
6 years ago
What a shock, I got tired of flagging his videos and getting replies that his videos are within community guidelines.
6 years ago
‘… shows jihadis https://quran.com/4/74-76 displaying al_Qaeda_and_Islamic_state_flags(?)’
… normal Shahada (Islamic creed) flag, in black
-> for WAR 8/39 against ‘wicked’ 8/37 UNbeilievers … still ALLOWED in Germany,
but NOT with muh.’s seal on it (FORBIDDEN in Germany) http://schnellmann.org/video/Afghan_Mujahideen.jpg
6 years ago
Goolag’s (Youtube’s owner) profits are suffering thanks to EU charges and outrage over censorship, and that is not including outrage over jihad videos. It is damage control.
6 years ago
Fascist president of antifa recruitment center also cracks down to Islamophobia—he goes hand in hand with mass murderer allah 40/2, ‘kill them’ https://quran.com/4/89
https://quadblog.stanford.edu/2017/11/07/advancing-free-speech-and-inclusion/.
6 years ago
YouTube should replace al-Awlaki’s videos with the footage from the drone that wasted his ass.
