YouTube has refused a request from U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn.) to remove all videos sponsored by terrorist organizations like Al-Qaeda, contending that most of them don’t violate its community guidelines.
Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Monday called on the Google Inc. subsidiary to remove video content produced by terrorist organizations that showed assassinations, deaths of U.S. soldiers and civilians, weapons training, “incendiary” speeches and other material intended to “encourage violence against the West.”
“Islamist terrorist organizations use YouTube to disseminate their propaganda, enlist followers, and provide weapons training,” Lieberman said in a letter to Google 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.”
In the letter, Lieberman noted that while YouTube posts community guidelines for its users, it does not appear that the company follows the guidelines. For example, he noted that despite rules that prohibit gratuitous violence on the site, there are videos of Al-Qaeda attacks on U.S. forces in which some soldiers are killed or injured.
When contacted, Google pointed to a YouTube blog post that said the company has removed some of the videos cited by Lieberman, primarily because they depicted gratuitous violence, advocated violence or used hate speech. However, the post also noted that most of the videos in question remain on the site “because they do not violate our community guidelines.”
“Hundreds of thousands of videos are uploaded to YouTube every day,” the YouTube blog post said. “Because it is not possible to pre-screen this much content, we have developed an innovative and reliable community policing system that involves our users in helping us enforce YouTube’s standards. Millions of users report potential violations of our community guidelines.”
YouTube went on to say that it encourages free speech and defends the right of its users to express unpopular points of view
“We believe that YouTube is a richer and more relevant platform for users precisely because it hosts a diverse range of views, and rather than stifle debate we allow our users to view all acceptable content and make up their own minds,” the company said. “Of course, users are always free to express their disagreement with a particular video on the site, by leaving comments or their own response video. That debate is healthy.”
Mark Hopkins, a blogger for Mashable, noted that YouTube has been “capricious and arbitrary” in deciding what content promotes hate speech or violence and should be removed. For example, he pointed out that YouTube took down a video showing victims of a Muslim terrorist attack, but allowed videos of homeless people who were paid to beat each other. A video of clothed females in Hong Kong with derogatory music towards women being played in the background was removed, while a video of a strip tease with nudity was allowed to remain on the site, he noted.
“[Lieberman's] primary concerns weren’t the usual suspects when you think of the things that American politicians find objectionable (rap music, graphic portrayals of violence, Grand Theft Auto and Janet Jackson’s nipple),” Hopkins noted.
Instead Lieberman brought up a topic that YouTube should be called on — allowing itself to be a participant in the dissemination of propaganda videos produced by Islamic terrorist organizations, Hopkins said. “If YouTube can spend millions enforcing DMCA and piracy concerns, they can take a few minutes and respond to valid citizen complaints against usage of the system to promote terrorist organizations,” he added.
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The US defence department has banned the giant internet search engine Google from filming inside and making detailed studies of US military bases.
Close-up, ground-level imagery of US military sites posed a “potential threat” to security, it said.
The move follows the discovery of images of the Fort Sam Houston army base in Texas on Google Maps.
A Google spokesman said that where the US military had expressed concerns, images had been removed.
Google has now been barred from filming and conducting detailed studies of bases, following the discovery of detailed, three-dimensional panoramas online – and in particular, views of the Texan base.
“Images include 360-degree views of the covered area to include access control points, barriers, headquarters, facilities and community areas,” said the defence department in a statement quoted by AFP news agency.
It said such detailed mapping could pose a threat.
Google spokesman Larry Yu said the decision by a Google team to enter the Texas base, which is in San Antonio, and undertake a detailed survey, had been “a mistake”.
He told the BBC that it was “not our policy to request access to military installations, but in this instance the operator of the vehicle with the camera on top – which is how we go about capturing imagery for Street-View – requested permission to access a military installation, was given access, and after learning of the incident we quickly removed the imagery”.
Individuals and governments
Military officials are currently looking into exactly what imagery is available – though it may not be able to order its removal if images are taken from public streets.
Among the popular mapping services offered by Google are Street View, which allows web users to “drive” along virtual US landscapes with ground-level views, and Google Earth, which offers detailed satellite and 3D images of locations around the world.
In this case, it was imagery offered on Street View that caused the concern.
But both have provoked complaints – from individuals depicted in the images and from governments concerned that satellite images could compromise security.
Gary Ross, a spokesman for the US Northern Command, told AFP that although such services could be useful, “there has to be a balance”.
But Mr Yu said Google would listen to concerns about privacy and security.
“We try to have a compliant image removal policy – not only relative to the military but to consumers also,” said Mr Yu.
“If people have concerns, they should contact us.”
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Most people consider themselves prudent when it comes to workplace activities, but actions speak louder than words—especially when it comes to computer security.
A large gap exists between what employees say about computer security and how they practice it at work, according to the Information Systems Audit and Control Association, which polled 301 white-collar workers at companies of at least 100 employees.
For example, 15 percent of workers had shared files over a peer-to-peer network, which “is opening a big door at a large corporation,” says Kent Anderson, a consultant who serves on ISACA’s Information Security Management Committee. “Most of these file-sharing programs by default scan available files and serve those out to anybody who wants them.”
Eleven percent of workers had e-mailed confidential documents to the wrong person—yet only 60 percent considered the behavior risky. And 35 percent had knowingly violated a corporate IT policy.
“They think, even if I make a mistake, nothing bad is going to happen,” Anderson says.
One reason for the risky behaviors may be that employees tend to take workplace IT security for granted. More than 90 percent told ISACA they considered their offices secure. While they worry about the security of their home machines, they feel somebody else has taken care of security on their work computers, Anderson says.
Another reason may be that employees don’t understand the risks they’re taking with what may seem routine tasks and use. Anderson says corporate IT departments tend to write overly long or technical IT policies, then stick those policies on a shelf and leave them unenforced.
Security policies must be simple, he says, and employees must be able to follow them and still do their jobs.
ISACA recommends corporate IT departments make security training routine. They should train new hires, update training frequently, and let employees know when there are specific threats.
ISACA’s recommendations reflect the results of a recent Computer Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) survey that found 68 percent of businesses have no security training program, even though most are seeing an increasing number of security threats and incidents.
This is the first time ISACA has surveyed security practices at work, and Anderson wants to follow up on the results. He’s especially interested in how and why people knowingly violate corporate IT policies.
Checking personal e-mail at work may not seem like a problem, he says, but when you consider that 49 percent of workers clicked on a URL in an external e-mail and one-third downloaded files or software from friends, the risks grow quickly.
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