Protests Move From the Streets To YouTube

weighn writes "One factor driving the move of political statements to YouTube, and away from old-style street protest, is that on the Internet the chances of being personally associated with a protest are lower. Mounting your political message online is also safer in countries where taking part in a protest can result in your death or injury at the hands of your country's army. We've seen how street protests and online polls alike are being shunted aside and ignored. What is the future for the common person who yearns to be heard?"

Comments

More centralization of propaganda, great!

[turing_m]

Youtube is now in the hands of search monopolist Google. Many said that they paid too much, but what really was bought was influence, worth far more than any revenue stream they could derive from it.

What will happen now is that google will allow activism it approves of or is indifferent to, and lower the search rankings/drop from top 10 lists any activism that it doesn't like. The same thing it already does with news and search.

I doubt this will change anything. All it will do is further tighten control.

For example, google/youtube has already been caught pulling / removing from top 10 lists the video where the BBC stated that the Salomon Brothers building (WTC7) had collapsed... 20 minutes before the event actually occurred.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/february2007/ 260207building7.htm