YouTube shuts down Egyptian anti-torture activist's acount

YouTube shuts down Egyptian anti-torture activist's acount

www.theage.com.au

The video-sharing website YouTube has suspended the account of a prominent Egyptian anti-torture activist who posted videos of what he said was brutal behaviour by some Egyptian policemen, the activist said.

Wael Abbas said close to 100 images he had sent to YouTube were no longer accessible, including clips depicting purported police brutality, voting irregularities and anti-government demonstrations.

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 28/11/07 by Souljah]

Looks like YouTube can only be used to upload useless crappy videos, making fun of people and showing music videos, which inlcude more tits and a$$ then the TV versions. But when somebody tries to use this new internet media to show the world, what kind of country he is living in - his account gets banned.

Meet Wael Abbas, Egyptian anti-torture activist. He was just trying to get the word out to the streets of the world about police brutality in Egypt. Or at least he was until YouTube (owned by global search-engine Google) shut down his account and blocked all access to all footage showing what the Egyptian police are capable of.

I guess Google does not like anti-torture activists.

www.theage.com.au
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 28/11/07 by Souljah]

According to the article:

YouTube regulations state that "graphic or gratuitous violence" is not allowed and warn users not to post such videos. Repeat violators of YouTube guidelines may have their accounts terminated, according to rules posted on the site.

I see it less as "Google doesn't like anti-torture activists" and more of the activist being in contravention of YouTube's T&C. Kinda like how you can't post the same sort of images on this site.

I doubt it's a Google issue, after all you could probably find those anti-whatever clips with Google if you wanted to.

Could it be that the videos are TOO brutal and Tube felt they should not be shown?

I haven't seen the videos so I can't comment on the brutality, just pointing out an obvious retort.

The activist in question could try other video-host sites, on the lesser mainstream. May have less censorship.


Just a thought


(edit for spelling)

[edit on 28-11-2007 by Grailkeeper]

reply to post by Grailkeeper


What about this - www.youtube.com...

Why aren't these videos taken off, then?

[edit on 28-11-2007 by TheoOne]

reply to post by TheoOne


Probably 'coz the cop didn't sodomise the perp with his night-stick (from the linked article)

There

www.youtube.com...

and there

www.youtube.com...

Why aren't these videos taken off? Youtube, hello?

[edit on 28-11-2007 by TheoOne]

reply to post by Beachcoma

Sure!

I have seen some pretty disturbing stuff on YouTube and I do not think that the "Violence Issue" has anything to do with this. It looks to me, that Google/YouTube like Egyptian police more then Egyptian anti-violence activists. And what is so violent by showing voting irregularities and anti-government demonstrations?

HELLO?

Originally posted by Souljah
And what is so violent by showing voting irregularities and anti-government demonstrations?

Absolutely nothing. But since his account was closed, wouldn't that also mean ALL his clips are removed? I'm not sure if that's standard procedure for YouTube; I don't really use that site.

Whatever the case, I'm just playing Devil's Advocate here. The Media likes to over-hype stuff. This became very apparent to me recently when they showed coverage of the reason Malaysian police crackdown of a rally in the capital city -- the actual issue was a political one, but the media spun it to portray it to be a racial/religious issue.

Ratings...

On topic, it would be nice to know what exactly was posted, though the article you linked seems to give a rough idea of the level of violence in question.

Moderator note;

posting videos of extreme violence and bloodletting is also not allowed on ATS per the T&C's.

1a) Offensive Content: You will not post links to images or use avatars and signatures that are offensive, abusive, distruptive and/or hateful. You will not use images, avatars or link to domains that contain gore, mutilation, pornography or illegal(2e) content. Doing so will result in removal of your post(s) and immediate termination of your account.

the video of the girl being tortured comes close to this, but is [in my opinion ONLY) allowable under the above rule.

fair warning

reply to post by masqua


I don't think it's gonna be a problem here. I tried looking for more information -- the links I could find were in Arabic so I didn't pursue it (couldn't understand). But from what I could gather from the English-speaking blogs, the videos and pictures were of a violent and sexual nature.

So yeah, that seems to be in contravention of YouTube's T&C. Wael Abbas should have used another video service instead. Bitching about YouTube when you're breaking their rules is like people on this site bitching about it when they contravene the T&Cs.

Drama event...

reply to post by Beachcoma

IF this anti-torture activist broke the rules of YouTube - then if you did not notice, a NUMBER of people broke their rules too and should have their account remvoed and their videos deleted! Why is this guy a Threat to them then? There is so much crap on YouTube - but when somebody wants to point out, how a certain government is using violence upon their people, then suddenly T&C starts to work.

This has nothing to do with violence on YouTube - but with Egyptian police trying to cover up their mess.

[edit on 28/11/07 by Souljah]

They only take note of "offensive" material when it is pointed out to them. They don't have armies of employees crawling the videos looking for anything that might upset someone.

If you have a problem with these other users, you should file a complaint. Otherwise it's unlikely they'll ever get noticed.

>
yeah, see...

"They closed it (the account) and they sent me an email saying that it will be suspended because there were lots of complaints about the content, especially the content of torture," Abbas told Reuters in a telephone interview.

[edit on 28-11-2007 by apc]

Originally posted by apc
They only take note of "offensive" material when it is pointed out to them. They don't have armies of employees crawling the videos looking for anything that might upset someone.

There you go. Kind of like how this website works.

Originally posted by Souljah
This has nothing to do with violence on YouTube - but with Egyptian police trying to cover up their mess.

Exactly. And the Egyptian government probably did file a complaint.
No real conspiracy here. No Google-Egyptian government collusion I'm afraid. Just a reporter unaware (or ignorant) of the rules and a government very much aware of the rules.

From The Guardian 12th of January 2007:

YouTube exposes torture in Egypt

American politicians quickly realised that no moment was private in the age of YouTube, and now Egyptian authorities are learning the same thing, even when the private moments are chilling scenes of police brutality.

Camera phone images of Egyptian police "beating and sexually assaulting" a Cairo man were being circulated via mobile phone, according to Human Rights Watch, before they made their way onto the popular video sharing site. Police have been arrested and will face trial on charges of torture in the case, but the man in the video, Imad Kabir, has been jailed for three months on the charge of "resisting authority" in the incident.

Bloggers and Kabir's lawyer, Nasser Amin, are now putting pressure on authorities to guarantee his safety in prison. Mr Amin calls the disturbing incident a case of 'routine torture'.

I guess police brutality in Egypt and YouTube have a history...

It's possible there's something there. Youtube and Google have a history of holding a liberal bias when it comes to campaigning this year and last.

As the Left wants us to believe radicals in Muslim nations are only acting the way they are because of western interference, any evidence that radicals are simply horrible people by nature would be a bad thing.

However it's still a stretch.

Considering the fact that Youtube allows "bumfights" crap and videos of gangs fighting and attacking/killing people (as well as other USELESS violent crap), I don't see why they felt they should disable THIS users account unless it's showing something that they don't want shown.

Personally, I feel these things posted by this user NEED to be seen just as much as any videos of police brutality or anything else that is allowed to stay up.


But hey, that's just my 2 pennies.






Jasn