Policing YouTube

Guy Aitchison (London, OK): Our sister site, terrorism.oD, is carrying an article by Tim Stevens on YouTube's decision to block all videos which may relate to foreign terrorist organisations in response to demands by US legislators led by Joe Lieberman. It will be of concern to all those who are worried about the steady creep of censorship in the name of the "war on terror". The UK Home Office apparently has its own list of videos it deems undesirable and, as in the US, it is asking businesses to block material deemed unsuitable by civil servants. The material, of course, is almost exclusively related to Islamic militancy. Leaving aside the civil liberties question, the value of such a politicized form of censorship is debateable when it comes to diminishing the threat of terrorism, as Stevens argues. You can read the full article here.