The YouTube dilemma

An attempt to curtail freedom of speech or legitimate complaint? Germany’s national Jewish body said Thursday it has filed suit against YouTube and its parent company Google, demanding a court order for the site to be permanently purged of anti-Semitic videos. Stephan Kramer, secretary general of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said in…

The sound of freedom

As China tries to defend its aggressive behaviour against protesting Tibetans – calling them “criminals” and arresting hundreds of people – the regime’s battle against the internet is temporarily successful but ultimately futile. The Times London explains: YouTube, the video-sharing website which has become a home to amateur footage of news events, has been blocked…

Occupation breeds resistance

The protests in Tibet continue against Chinese rule . Scores are dead. China has blocked YouTube in an attempt to stop videos emerging from its brutality. Australia’s Prime Minister has been urged to use his “influence” with Beijing. Bloggers are transmitting news. The Dalai Lama is caught in the middle. The August Olympic Games could…

Watching the cops

YouTube saves the day in this disturbing case of police brutality (respect for the law is clearly an optional extra):

The web “threat”

A great blog by American human rights lawyer Jonathan Turley is well worth a read. Two recent highlights: – YouTube has again attracted controversy by pulling a video. This time it has removed the video of Marine David Motari throwing a puppy off a cliff as shown below in a different link. The company appears…

Let the videos run free

When will dictatorships ever learn? The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has directed the country’s ISPs to block access to the videos sharing website YouTube for allegedly featuring a blasphemous video. However, and according to the Pakistani “Don’t Block The Blog” there are two theories that could explain PTA’s recent move to ban YouTube: vote rigging…

Why bother?

The pure futility of it all: A Turkish court has again blocked access to the popular video-sharing Web site YouTube because of clips allegedly insulting the country’s founding father, according to reports Sunday. It was the second time Turkey banned the site because of clips deemed disrespectful to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. It is illegal in…

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