As Iran finally admits that it will not be able to ban Facebook forever, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President Obama's Best Friend Forever, is trying to ban Facebook and YouTube in his country because they have posted items that are hostile to him in the current local elections.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey could ban Facebook and
YouTube, which he says have been abused by his political enemies, after
local elections on March 30.
Erdogan is locked in a power struggle
with the US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally who he
says is behind a stream of "fabricated" audio recordings posted on the
Internet allegedly revealing corruption in his inner circle.
"We are determined on this subject. We will not leave this nation at
the mercy of YouTube and Facebook," Erdogan said in a late night
interview with the Turkish broadcaster ATV.
Asked if the possible barring of these sites was included in his planned measures, he said: "Included."
Erdogan
says the release of his purported conversations is part of a campaign
to discredit him.
Gulen denies any involvement in the recordings, and
rejects allegations that he is using a network of proteges to try to
influence politics in Turkey.
So why doesn't he just ban them now? Oh... wait... Erdogan wants to be able to claim he was 'democratically elected' before he acts undemocratically. Hmmm.
Egypt has decided to punish YouTube for showing Innocence of Muslims by blocking its service... for a month.
An Egyptian court ordered the suspension of online video service YouTube for a month on Saturday for broadcasting a film insulting the Prophet Mohammad, state media reported.
The
country's administrative court ordered the ministries of communication
and investment to block YouTube, owned by Google , inside Egypt because
it had carried the film Innocence of Muslims, said state news agency MENA.
...
Egypt's National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority said it would
abide by the ruling as soon as it received a copy of the verdict.
Maha Abouelenein, a Google spokeswoman in Cairo, said the company had yet to receive any formal notification of the ruling.
I could quip 'what took them so long,' but in Egypt the problem is that the Morsi government can now beat up protesters for a month without worrying about it showing up on YouTube.
Power Line's Scott Johnson reports that YouTube has removed the IDF video of the Ahmed al-Jabari liquidation as a violation of its 'terms of service' (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).
The video was posted here. According to YouTube, the video violates its terms of service. YouTube’s terms of service are posted here; YouTube’s community guidelines are posted here.
For the moment, at least, the video can still be seen here and I’m sure elsewhere in the YouTube universe. I’m also posting the video below.
Israel finds itself subject to continuing attack
by maniacal murderers. One of the most important weapons at its
disposal is accurate information. The video at issue perfectly
illustrated Israel’s efforts to strike at terrorist forces while sparing
the civilians in which the terrorists willfully embed themselves.
Scott did not post the video on his site. But Liveleak has it and I am posting it below with an embed from there.
US actress suing Google to take down Innocence of Muslims (with link to full-length movie)
If you had appeared in Innocence of Muslims and there was a fatwa issued calling for the murder of anyone who had appeared in the movie, what would you do? I would think that anyone who understands the implications of such a fatwa would be in hiding and not holding press conferences to announce that they're filing a lawsuit. But actress Cindy Lee Garcia held a press conference on Wednesday to announce that she is suing Google-YouTube for alleged copyright violations (apparently not the first time) as a result of the film being shown. That means that her name and face are now associated with the film. I don't hope she wins the lawsuit but I hope she hasn't just issued herself a death sentence. Quite simply, these people are crazy.
Last week, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge denied Garcia's request
for a temporary restraining order that would have required YouTube to
stop posting the crudely made 13-minute video, finding the actress was
unlikely to prevail on the merits of her case in state court.
As
in her previous lawsuit, Garcia accused the purported filmmaker of
fraud, libel and unfair business practices. But her federal lawsuit also
asserts a copyright claim to her performance in the video, titled "The
Innocence of Muslims." Garcia's case was the first known civil
litigation stemming from the video, billed as a film trailer, which
depicts the Prophet Mohammad as a fool and a sexual deviant. The clip
sparked a torrent of anti-American unrest in Egypt, Libya and dozens of
other Muslim countries over the past two weeks.
...
Garcia's lawyer argued in court last week that her client, who is
from Bakersfield, California, has suffered harm similar to a person
whose privacy is violated by the unauthorized release of a sex tape.
But Google's attorneys said that the rights of an actor do not protect that person from how a film is perceived.
In
her latest lawsuit filed in US District Court in Santa Clara,
California, Garcia says that Google is infringing on the copyright she
holds to her performance in the film by distributing the video without
her approval via YouTube.
Garcia's lawsuit identifies Nakoula
Basseley Nakoula, 55, a Los Angeles-area Coptic man who has served time
in federal prison for bank fraud, as the film's producer.
On
Saturday, a Pakistani cleric offered a $100,000 reward to anyone who
killed the film's maker. Garcia said in her lawsuit that an Egyptian
cleric had issued a fatwa, or religious edict, against anyone who served
as a director, producer or actor in the video.
...
According to Garcia, Nakoula operated under the assumed name of Sam
Bacile, misleading her and other actors into appearing in a film they
believed was an adventure drama called "Desert Warrior." After the fact,
however, she learned that some of her lines spoken in the production
had been dubbed over.
The alteration made it look like Garcia
"voluntarily performed in a hateful, anti-Islamic production," the
lawsuit says, adding that she has "been subjected to credible death
threats and is in fear for her life and the life and safety of anyone
associated with her." Nakoula has been in hiding for much of the past
two weeks after being questioned by federal authorities looking into
whether he may have violated terms of his probation in the making or
promotion of the video.
At this point, it's been up long enough that I'd bet that (like with Fitna a couple of years ago) enough people have downloaded it so that it will never disappear from the internet.
I also think she'd be much wiser to be in hiding rather than holding press conferences.
UPDATE FRIDAY 12:21 AM
Link to 'full version' removed because it wasn't the real movie.
If you're in Israel and you want to watch Innocence of Muslims, you'd better download it now. A group of Israeli Arab MK's and religious leaders has filed a lawsuit calling on Israel to join such progressive bastions of free speech as Egypt, Libya and Indonesia in forcing Google and YouTube to take the video down.
MK Taleb a-Sanaa and various Arab-Israeli mayors and religious leaders on Wednesday filed a petition with the Jerusalem District Court demanding that Google take down an anti-Islam video ridiculing the Muslim Prophet Mohamed from YouTube, to prevent future publicizing of the film and to block all access to the film in Israel.
...
The petitioners claim that the publication violates the religious feelings of Muslims in contravention of Section 173 of the Penal Code, constitutes incitement to racism against Muslims in violation of Article 144 of the Penal Code, and is defamatory according to the 1965 Defamation Law.
The petition was filed by attorney Kais Nasser, and was filed against Google, which owns YouTube.
News reports have indicated that Google has already blocked access to the video in Egypt, Libya, Indonesia and India, but has rejected a request by the White House to pull it from the video-sharing site YouTube altogether. Authorities in Afghanistan ordered YouTube to be shutdown "indefinitely" to stop Afghans from watching the film, while Russia and Saudi Arabia also threatened to block the website unless it removes the film.
If the laws were properly interpreted, perhaps we would not have reached this point. My own view is that Israel's laws in this area are stifling and probably in need of revision. I would not ban the film.
Awesome: Google refuses to pull 'Innocence of Mohamed' film clip
Awesome. Let's give Google credit where it's due. Google owns YouTube. Although they agreed to pull 'Innocence of Mohamed' - the film that was used as an excuse to attack American diplomatic posts last week - in some Muslim countries, they refused to pull it generally. In free countries, you can still see it.
Google said was further restricting the clip to comply with local law rather than as a response to political pressure.
"We've restricted access to it in countries where it is illegal such as India and Indonesia, as well as in Libya and Egypt, given the very sensitive situations in these two countries," the company said. "This approach is entirely consistent with principles we first laid out in 2007."
White House officials had asked Google earlier on Friday to reconsider whether the video had violated YouTube's terms of service. The guidelines can be viewed here.
Google said on Wednesday that the video was within its guidelines.
Last week, the principal Palestinian Authority religious leader, the Mufti Muhammad Hussein, presented the killing of Jews by Muslims as a religious Islamic goal. At an event celebrating the 47th anniversary of the founding of Fatah, he cited the Hadith (Islamic tradition attributed to Muhammad) saying that the Hour of Resurrection will not come until Muslims fight the Jews and kill them:
"The Hour [of Resurrection] will not come until you fight the Jews. The Jew will hide behind stones or trees. Then the stones or trees will call: 'Oh Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.'"
Palestinian Media Watch reported regularly during the PA terror campaign (Intifada, 2000-2005) on the repeated use of this Hadith by PA clerics on official PA TV to motivate Palestinians to terror attacks, preaching that Muslims had an Islamic obligation to kill Jews. The fact that the Mufti quotes this now indicates that this may have remained part of the PA's religious establishment's teachings, even though it is less frequently promoted on PA TV.
The last time official PA TV broadcast a sermon during which this Hadith calling to kill Jews was quoted was in 2010.
In response to yesterday's PMW video-bulletin which showed the PA Mufti's speech that Muslims' destiny is to kill Jews, YouTube has frozen PMW's account. All PMW videos are working except this one but the account is frozen and PMW cannot upload new videos for the next two weeks.
I guess the Leftists at YouTube have a little problem with the truth.
Well, yes, of course, I have the video. Let's go to the videotape.
When I want to post things, I post them to LiveLeak. LiveLeak posted Geert Wilders' FITNA, and kept it up long enough to let it be mirrored all over the world (until the lives of LiveLeak's proprietors in England were threatened). Then when things calmed down, it was uploaded again. Yes, it's still there. LiveLeak doesn't take anything down as a rule.
By the way, this morning on Twitter, someone accused me of defending Islam. I knew you'd all get a kick out of that. I figured this was an appropriate post in which to mention it.
For the first time in three years, Syria is allowing access to YouTube and Facebook.
Internet users in Syria say Facebook and YouTube are available for the first time in three years amid signs Damascus may be lifting its ban on the websites.
The Syrian government does not comment on its Internet restrictions. But several web users in Syria told The Associated Press on Tuesday the sites were accessible for the first time in years without having to tunnel through proxy servers. The head of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedeom of Expression, Mazen Darwish, said he has "semiofficial confirmation" the ban is being lifted.
I would bet that Big Brother is watching every single surfer in Syria. But I guess the Syrians have decided that they're not afraid of an Egyptian-style revolution. You'd have to get out from behind your monitor for that.
Palestinian Media Watch's YouTube account is back, but....
Palestinian Media Watch's YouTube account was restored last night, I was informed in an email from Itamar Marcus, but not before spurring this article by Andre Oboler.
The problem is not that YouTube never steps in. The problem is they are liable to step in only when there is public exposure of content they wrongly ignored, or when political pressure is applied.
YouTube also seems to have started giving in to pressure to remove videos and channels that expose and educate against hate.
A few months ago, for example, efforts were made to shut down the YouTube presence of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). The institute provides the English-speaking world with insight into the Mideast media. Some of the exposure is not welcome by those who say one thing in English to a Western audience and another thing at home.
The MEMRI debacle seems to have been resolved, but YouTube is now going after Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) which fulfills a similar role, focused exclusively on the Palestinian media.
PMW monitors, translates and shares examples of incitement. It was PMW that exposed the use of a Mickey Mouse character inciting hate and violence on the Hamas TV children’s show “The Pioneers of Tomorrow.”
That story created shock waves around the world, leading to discussions in the Western mainstream media and at the UN of the link between incitement in the media and terrorism.
PMW’s violation appears to be that it was posting “hate material.”
There is no doubt that it was. However, like MEMRI, that material was not shared for the purpose of incitement, but to expose and counter the spread of hate. Some commentators have speculated that it is not the hate against Jews, Israelis and Americans – as shown in MEMRI and PMW videos – that is the problem, but rather the fact that the videos might cause a backlash against those promoting such hate.
Any argument that uses free speech to prevent the exposure of hate speech is inherently deeply flawed.
More from Palestinian Media Watch on the closing of their YouTube account
Here's more from Palestinian Media Watch director Itamar Marcus on the closing of his organization's YouTube account.
YouTube closed PMW's main account - PALWATCH - for "violating YouTube terms of use" by propagating hate speech and they specified the videos listed below:
1. "Hamas TV teaches kids to kill Jews" formerly at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwN2M6ZIIRU Removed for violating our Terms of Use on 10/02/2009.
2. "Jews are a virus like Aids" formerly at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYaGl3KjPUw Removed for violating our Terms of Use on 01/18/2010.
3. "Farewell video before suicide attack of Hamas suicide bomber Adham Ahmad Hujyla Abu Jandal" formerly athttp ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYdTudQhWM4 Removed for violating our Terms of Use on 06/10/2010.
4. "Hamas suicide farewell video: Jews monkeys and pigs; Maidens reward for killing Jews" formerly athttp ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryc7RqXlVdE Removed for violating our Terms of Use on 08/14/2010.
5. "PA cleric: Kill Jews, Allah will make Muslims masters over Jews" formerly at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjuDTO8fgqM Removed for violating our Terms of Use on 12/12/2010. Please see http://www.youtube.com/t/terms and http://www.youtube.com/t/community_guidelines
6. "Hamas suicide terrorist farewell video: Palestinians drink the blood of Jews" formerly athttp ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSftYIGH6-w Removed for violating our Terms of Use on 12/15/2010.
The claim is that our videos, which expose the hate speech propagated by the Palestinian leadership and controlled media, themselves represent hate speech.
YouTube stated that the account was henceforth terminated "due to repeated or severe violations of our Terms of Use".
Since 2009 they have been deleting specified videos - those mentioned above - but now "terminated" the entire account due to no 6 above.
I don't understand something here. Why was there no outcry when the previous five videos were taken down? Why did we wait for the account to be blocked altogether?
Under pressure from both the American and British governments, YouTube has removed hundreds of videos of American-born radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki (Hat Tip: Will).
In an e-mail, Victoria Grand, a YouTube spokeswoman, said that the site had removed videos that violated the site’s guidelines prohibiting “dangerous or illegal activities such as bomb-making, hate speech, and incitement to commit violent acts,” or came from accounts “registered by a member of a designated foreign terrorist organization,” or used to promote such a group’s interests.
Ms. Grand said that Google, YouTube’s owner, sought to balance freedom of expression with averting calls to violence. “These are difficult issues,” she wrote, “and material that is brought to our attention is reviewed carefully. We will continue to remove all content that incites violence according to our policies. Material of a purely religious nature will remain on the site.”
In an interview, Mr. Weiner said that YouTube gave him a “bureaucratic” response at first, but seemed to take his request more seriously after the bombs were found [originating from Yemen via UPS]. “It has become increasingly clear that this guy is an international terrorist that is using their service to do illegal things,” he said.
Britain’s concern over Mr. Awlaki and his group rose sharply on Wednesday with two developments. A young woman who had embraced his cause and watched dozens of hours of his videos was sentenced to life in prison for the attempted murder in May of a prominent legislator, and a top official in the government of Prime Minister David Cameron announced that a member of the Yemeni Qaeda group had been arrested earlier in the year in a previously undisclosed bombing plot against the country.
It's about time. Al-Awlaki is a major recruiting tool for radical Islam around the world.
The picture is of attempted underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight outside Detroit last Christmas Day. Abdulmutallab was recruited by al-Awlaki.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
