What do you mean by 'equal footing.' The footing that videos like these stand on is only as strong as the support that they have from viewers. We live in a marketplace of ideas. People who support ISIS are not going to stop because Google takes the videos down, but it does start a dangerous precedent to censor any content Google doesn't like.
Radicalization is real. It's why terrorism works. If a private service wants to restrict videos of torture killings and beheadings followed by propaganda, why not?
Those shouldn't be tolerated any more than videos that show torture of animals or abuse of children.
Seems like a reasonable standard and not necessarilya slippery slope?
Radicalization is real. It's why terrorism works. If a private service wants to restrict videos of torture killings and beheadings followed by propaganda, why not?
If this was all that was censored then we'd likely be more agreeable. Unfortunately there is cases like this which seems to be from today:
So, where would something like the Saddam Hussain capture/execution videos fall? Or the movies depicting the same? How about the movie Hannibal? Does it being fictional make the over-the-top torture and violence OK?
Saddam Hussain falls under the category of 'news' -- he was an official leader of an entire country so what happens to him is relevant in history and should be documented. Fiction is an entirely separate category.. we can watch Game of Thrones which is massively violent and understand that it's different from reality and propaganda.
If we have no limits, then should YouTube also allow pro-child rape videos showing how awesome a 3-year old gang bang is with a crowd of guys cheering that on?
At some point you have to draw the line. I admit this is a very hard and nuanced thing to do, I generally support free speech, but I think that ISIS deserves a platform on YouTube. I'm not sure I'd support outlawing it from the government level, but that doesn't mean we can't do things to curb its influence online.
