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A Proposal For Dealing With Terrorist Videos On the Internet (vortex.com)

Posted by samzenpus on from the out-with-the-bad dept.

Lauren Weinstein writes: Recent claims by some (mostly nontechnical) observers that it would be "simple" for services like YouTube to automatically block "terrorist" videos, in the manner that various major services currently detect child porn images are nonsensical. One major difference is that those still images are detected via data "fingerprinting" techniques that are relatively effective on known still images compared against a known database, but are relatively useless outside the realm of still images, especially for videos of varied origins that are routinely manipulated by uploaders specifically to avoid detection. Two completely different worlds. So are there practical ways to at least help to limit the worst of the violent videos, the ones that most directly portray, promote, and incite terrorism or other violent acts? I believe there are.

13 of 177 comments (clear)

  1. This is getting tiresome by Artem+S.+Tashkinov · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Firstly, such videos should not be removed, "Know thy enemy" you know. I guess the best way to deal with them is to put them behind the usual 18+ rating as youtube has already been doing for years to even slightly provocative clips.

    Secondly, most people, this journalist included, don't understand terrorism. Its goal is not to kill, but to be heard and to suggest fear. Your risk of dying of terrorism is many magnitudes lower than dying from other natural courses, including a vehicle crash or cancer.

    The best way to deal with terrorism is to neglect them totally. Don't let them on TV or radio, or Internet. Fight them behind the curtains.

    1. Re:This is getting tiresome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      such videos should not be removed [...] Don't let them on TV or radio, or Internet.

      So we should fight to keep them off the internet, but if they somehow managed to get on, we should let them stay there?

      If that was not the message you were conveying, then please clarify.

    2. Re:This is getting tiresome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Only the army and the spooks needs to know them that well. So remove them.

      My father grew up in a totalitarian state and worked in a library, so he was allowed to see much of the censored subversive material. He has taught me a lot about the threats that actually face a population, rather than the ones manufactured by cunning propagandists.

      The tl;dr of it is that he thinks the idea that the government should have a privileged position in being able to access speech is tyrannical, unworkable bullshit, and that it's mostly used to oppress dissent rather than to protect proportionately from immediate threats.

    3. Re: This is getting tiresome by cpt+kangarooski · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No, other people need to know them too, or else you leave yourself open to having government authorities declare people to be terrorists regardless of whether they really are or not. Perhaps the victims of such false accusations are merely peaceful political opponents; you won't know if they're censored, and it's hardly unheard of for those in power to use any tool against those who would limit their power or remove them from power.

      We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.

      --
      -- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
    4. Re:This is getting tiresome by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The best way to deal with terrorism is to neglect them totally. Don't let them on TV or radio, or Internet.

      So, you agree with TFA, then? Because "don't let them on the internet" seems to be what TFA is advocating.

      Personally, I prefer treating them like common criminals. Don't give them the credit of being "terrorists". Call them what they are: murderers/thieves/whatever. Don't treat their trials as media circuses; instead give them exactly the coverage any other criminal would get....

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    5. Re:This is getting tiresome by BradMajors · · Score: 2, Interesting

      What about the murderous Jews? Why aren't we similarly removing videos by extremist Jews? Videos are being used to recruit more Jews to kill more people.

    6. Re:This is getting tiresome by rubycodez · · Score: 2

      no. wrong.

      someday a government could decide you are the terrorist for some philosophical or religious idea you hold. An evil oppressive government will label good and decent patriots as terrorists. So we don't let the government or some corporation censor.

      Your "let the people report them' is the same wrongheaded thinking the soviets and nazis used, and people turned in their neighbors they didn't like for crimes they didn't commit.

      fuck that. fuck you.

    7. Re:This is getting tiresome by geekmux · · Score: 2

      Personally, I prefer treating them like common criminals...Don't treat their trials as media circuses; instead give them exactly the coverage any other criminal would get....

      Just so we're clear here, you want us to start giving them book deals, reality shows, YouTube royalties, and movie rights?

      I guess you haven't noticed just how much we love rewarding hardened narcissists...

    8. Re:This is getting tiresome by mrex · · Score: 2

      >Only the army and the spooks needs to know them that well.

      This kind of knowledge gap can be very dangerous to a democracy, where the people as a whole are tasked with evaluating and deciding on leadership.

  2. Better idea... by RogueyWon · · Score: 3, Funny

    Require all of the videos to be played back at 150% speed, with the musical accompaniment of the Nyancat song, with all voices replaced by audio clips of 1980s children's television shows and subtitles in the style of the doge meme.

    Just about as practical to implement and probably more effective.

  3. Re:Sick of Censorship by jedidiah · · Score: 3, Informative

    No. Those were carefully edited videos Planned Parenthood employees being defrauded by people trying to discredit them.

    Some of those videos weren't even that.

    --
    A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  4. Playing into their hands by ThatsNotPudding · · Score: 2

    The West is still running all the plays in Bin Laden's playbook, I see.

    The very idea of censoring them proclaims our hypocrisy even more loudly than their crimes against humanity: Freedom of Speech (TM) is only allowed for White Christians. Even worse, it lends credence to their conceit that such videos can easily destroy the very concept of a secular, open, democratic society (although even that concept is fraying badly due to self-harm allowed by power-mad fascists). Cowardice, plain and simple.

  5. Re:What I Don't Understand... by Coren22 · · Score: 2

    Israel...

    --
    APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?