Google Tightens Standards for YouTube Videos in Response to Lieberman’s Pressure

Homeland Security Chairman Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., Thursday hailed Google’s decision to strengthen the standards required for videos to appear on YouTube – a move taken in direct response to the Senator’s complaints about violent Islamist videos that have been posted on the popular website.

Google’s community guidelines for YouTube will now bar videos that incite violence, in addition to videos that contain hate speech and gratuitous violence.

“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. “I expect these stronger community guidelines to decrease the number of videos on YouTube produced by al-Qaeda and affiliated Islamist terrorist organizations.”

The revised guideline that pertains to terrorist videos reads like this: “Things like predatory behavior, stalking, threats, harassment, intimidation, invading privacy, revealing other people’s personal information, and inciting others to commit violent acts or to violate the Terms of Use are taken very seriously. Anyone caught doing these things may be permanently banned from YouTube.”

Source: U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security

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