Security

YouTube Bans Videos 'Intended to Incite Violence or Encourage Dangerous, Illegal Activities'

We should all feel safer now that Google’s YouTube has unveiled new guidelines that will not tolerate uploaded videos “intended to incite violence or encourage dangerous, illegal activities that have an inherent risk of serious physical harm or death.” Viewers of the popular video sharing site instead will have to use Google’s search engine to […]

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We should all feel safer now that Google's YouTube has unveiled new guidelines that will not tolerate uploaded videos "intended to incite violence or encourage dangerous, illegal activities that have an inherent risk of serious physical harm or death."

Viewers of the popular video sharing site instead will have to use Google's search engine to find them elsewhere. Or, better yet, just turn on the boob tube and click onto any broadcast or cable network.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Independent from Connecticut, asked for the YouTube changeover. YouTube originally balked on First Amendment grounds, but changed course Wednesday.

"YouTube was being used by Islamist terrorist organizations to recruit and train followers via the internet and to incite terrorist attacks around the world, including right here in the United States, and Google should be commended for recognizing that," Lieberman said, coincidentally on the seventh anniversary of the 2001 terror attacks on the United States.

"I expect these stronger community guidelines to decrease the number of videos on YouTube produced by Al Qaeda and affiliated Islamist terrorist organizations," he said.

Here are YouTube's updated "Community Guidelines."

"While it might not seem fair to say you can't show something because of what viewers theoretically might do in response, we draw the line at content that's intended to incite violence or encourage dangerous, illegal activities that have an inherent risk of serious physical harm or death. This means not posting videos on things like instructional bomb making, ninja assassin training, sniper attacks, videos that train terrorists, or tips on illegal street racing. Any depictions like these should be educational or documentary and shouldn't be designed to help or encourage others to imitate them."

As the race for the White House heats up, are political commercials included?

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