NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Even YouTube Can't Silence Radical Cleric
Even YouTube Can't Silence Radical Cleric
http://j.mp/eTaU5D (New York Times)
"The story of You Tube and Mr. Awlaki is a revealing case study in the
complexity of limiting controversial speech in the age of
do-it-yourself media, as the House prepares for hearings next week on
the radicalization of American Muslims."
Let's be very, very clear about this. It is *impossible* to
effectively suppress such videos, or any speech for that matter, on
the Internet. Even if YouTube manually prescreened every video before
it went public -- an impossible task that would likely destroy YouTube
as we know it (but something that some COICA supporters would likely
applaud), the materials would continue to be available elsewhere. Of
course, then the masters of censorship would likely demand that Google
and other search engines not tell anyone where those other copies were
located.
But the materials in question would still exist, and people who really
wanted to access them would find ways to do so.
In the name of protecting the public, we'd have created a vast
censorship regime appropriate for Orwell's "Ministry of Love," Terry
Gilliam's division of "Information Retrieval," and all manner of other
fictional (and real) totalitarian nightmares.
It's a game of Whac-A-Mole where "winning" would mean utterly
destroying free speech.
It's a game we simply should not be playing.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org
Founder:
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Google Buzz: http://bit.ly/lauren-buzz
Quora: http://www.quora.com/Lauren-Weinstein
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com