Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) has called on Google to remove Internet video content produced by terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda from YouTube.
The videos show assassinations, deaths of U.S. soldiers and civilians, weapons training, incendiary speeches by al-Qaeda leadership, and other material intended to encourage violence against the West, according to Lieberman.
“Islamist terrorist organizations use YouTube to disseminate their propaganda, enlist followers, and provide weapons training,” the senator said Monday in an open letter to Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt. “YouTube also, unwittingly, permits Islamist terrorist groups to maintain an active, pervasive, and amplified voice, despite military setbacks or successful operations by the law-enforcement and intelligence communities.”
Branded Videos
The videos are branded with al-Qaeda logos — a practice detailed in a recent committee staff report entitled Violent Islamist Extremism, the Internet, and the Homegrown Terrorist Threat.
These logos are easily recognizable, according to Lieberman, making it easy for Google to remove them. Lieberman called on Google to enforce its own community standards against videos that show gratuitous violence or people getting “hurt, attacked or humiliated.”
“Protecting our citizens from terrorist attacks is a top priority for our government. The private sector can help us do that,” he continued. “By taking action to curtail the use of YouTube to disseminate the goals and methods of those who wish to kill innocent civilians, Google will make a singularly important contribution to this important national effort.”
Do the Videos Breed Vigilance?
Paul Davis, author of God vs. Religion, has a different take. From the perspective of Homeland Security, he said, such terrorist videos serve to further notify law enforcement of future al-Qaeda operatives. Terrorists, he added, cut their own throats and minimize their effectiveness by unveiling their plans and evil deeds to the world by video.
“Such evildoers and fanatics, by reason of…