Wednesday, November 28, 2007

YouTube Closes Account of Anti-Torture Activist

Reuters writes:

The video-sharing Web site YouTube has suspended the account of a prominent Egyptian anti-torture activist who posted videos of what he said was brutal behaviour by some Egyptian policemen, the activist said.

Wael Abbas said close to 100 images (sic) he had sent to YouTube were no longer accessible, including clips depicting purported police brutality, voting irregularities and anti-government demonstrations.

Wael Abbas’ channel at this time reads, “This account is suspended.”

Abbas told Reuters that Google-owned YouTube sent him an email saying that his account will be suspended “because there were lots of complaints about the content, especially the content of torture,” as Reuters writes. This is in accordance with YouTube’s guidelines which state “Graphic or gratuitous violence is not allowed. If your video shows someone getting hurt, attacked, or humiliated, don’t post it.” The question then perhaps is not if posting such videos conforms to YouTube guidelines, but whether or not YouTube’s guidelines are in conformance with Google’s stated mission to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible.”

A site specifically aimed at showing footage of human rights violations is hub.witness.org.

[Via Reddit.]

YouTube Closes Account of ... by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (11)

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