YouTube suspends account of prominent Egyptian activist
UPDATE: His account has been re-opened! But with all the videos removed, unfortunately.
The video-sharing Web site 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. Read the rest.
Way to go YouTube!
Also relevant: Google reveals Blogger’s IP address:
Google’s settlement and subsequent handing over of a blogger’s IP address without being legally forced to has the potential to set a dangerous precedent for the thousands of bloggers reporting on controversial topics who previously felt protected that their ISP or blogging provider (such as Google) would fight to preserve their anonymity.
Hmm. I wonder if they’re going to pull a Yahoo and start handing out Gmail passwords of controversial activists/authors to the relevant authorities.
Edit:
Is it merely a coincidence that this is happening around the same time the news broke out of an online festival of torture videos? From the Middle East Times:
Egyptian bloggers, long at the forefront of exposing rights abuses, are planning an online festival of torture videos to run alongside the 31st Cairo Film Festival, local media have reported.
Not to be paranoid or anything, but one does wonder if YouTube attempts to silence such efforts in order to avoid being attacked by foreign governments.
Apparently the above article is a rumor.
Join the Conversation
I agree with Zarwan’s conclusion in the article. These videos violated their terms of service. Likely they are just doing their jobs, it’s not a political decision.
But I like your version of the YouTube logo
You’re right. I probably overreacted. I still think it’s messed up, though.
Well there’s always LiveLeak Esra’a. Doesn’t surprise me that YouTube would do this kind of thing anymore.
I really don’t think you overreacted, Esra’a!
It may not be a political decision, but nevertheless Youtube hosts a dozen of versions of the beating of Rodney King – which are violent as well. It’s not like Youtube censors everything violent – so why did they in this case?
I followed the Big Pharao’s call to mail Youtube and urged them to reopen Wael Abbas’ account because there are so many violent videos nobody cares about.Other than all the shocking accidents shown these videos at least had some great importance and were not meant as voyeurism. They really should not be forbidden.
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Don’t they have a feature, that says “the following video contains violence, you have to be registered and over 18 to watch it”?
It does that with most other videos that contain violence. So you’re very right Simon, why specifically suspend Wael’s account? I wonder if Wael even had prior warning?
I lost my faith in YouTube a long time ago. I think it’s disgusting what’s happening with all these big companies – Google, Yahoo, et al. They claim to be agents of freedom of information and free speech, yet they are working against the very activists who fight for these rights, probably for the sake of maintaining their profits. What a shame!
@ Esra’a:
Yes, there’s this “over 18″ clause which is used for most violent / sexist videos. Think that is enough – yes, even that is too much sometimes. Why should I be protected from watching videos about police brutality just because I’m only 17? That makes no sense. So much more suspending videos only watchable for adults does not make any sense.
We all need to pressure YouTube into giving us a valid explanation. I wrote them last night, but I’ll do it again should I receive no answer!
Please continue to spread the word. If they get away with this, God knows whose videos will be removed next. YouTube is a vital network for human rights advocacy and awareness. We can’t lose it.
As there is also a Youtube blog, I would consider to write something into it’s comment section of the latest posting.
I wrote a comment here, as it’s the most relevant thread, using our Free Kareem YouTube account. I wonder if they will approve of it!
They tend to ignore user complaints/concerns.
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Another thing I wanted to note is that YouTube has no problem allowing e-jihadis to host jihadi propaganda on the site yet when someone wants to use it for good (in this case, exposing brutality of a corrupt regime), they have no problem removing it.
Why the double standard here?
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Wael’s account has been reopened! Youtube just send me a mail and it is really true. Great effort of our protest
That’s great! Do you know what caused them to reconsider? Did they go into any detail in the e-mail?
… too bad they deleted all of his videos, as it seems.
No, they didn’t tell anything. The whole email:
Hi there,
Thanks for your email.
We have reinstated the account in question and you should be able to view it again.
User feedback is very important to us, and your comments and ideas will be used to improve the YouTube community.
Regards,
Sam
The YouTube Team
That’s sad. I hope there is a way the videos can be recovered. What a loss!
By the way, apparently the torture video festival is just a rumor (a blogger was joking around and the news traveled to news agencies which didn’t check the facts, according to a comment on CPB.)
It makes sense, because very little bloggers were writing about it and I would think something like this would’ve made huge noise.
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fuck man i know how you feel, i got my account banned too and now they wont let me reopen it
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