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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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October 6th, 2006 - Iraq Snuff
Films Find Home on YouTube |
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Iraq Snuff Films Find Home
on YouTube Gawker October 6, 2006 The New York Times wakes up
to yet another scary aspect of YouTube, that being the posting of graphic
combat footage from Iraq. The obvious points are
addressed - YouTube enforcing a policy of taking down videos that show death
and/or graphic violence, veterans and others expressing mixed feelings about
inappropriate content vs. free speech, and angst over pro-insurgency video
that glorifies the killing of American soldiers. Though videos like these get
administratively removed pretty quickly, you can always find more (often the
same videos, re-uploaded endlessly) with elementary searches. YouTube
carefully notes that they delete clips that "display graphic depictions
of violence in addition to any war footage (U.S. or other) displayed with
intent to shock or disgust, or graphic war footage with implied death (of
U.S. troops or otherwise)." That
"other/otherwise" qualifier might be more often applied to dead
Americans than dead insurgents, though; while various Al Qaeda propaganda
videos of sniper hits on American soldiers get routinely deleted, other clips
- like this infrared footage of a supposedly insurgent trio getting cut to
pieces by machine-gun fire from a C-130 plane - can remain online for months
undisturbed. That video itself isn't
graphically violent per se, but its indistinct nature almost makes it just as
unsettling as up-close blood & guts. Maybe it's been overlooked by
YouTube censors because the uploader categorized it as "comedy." External link:
http://www.gawker.com/news/iraq/iraq-snuff-films-find-home-on-youtube-205781.php |