August 28th, 2007

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History, Politics
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YouTube, Nazis and Hate Speech

ZDNet reports that YouTube faces criticism and possible legal action for hosting anti-semitic videos:

The videos hosted on YouTube include clips of a 1940 anti-Semitic propaganda film Jud Suess and two music videos of outlawed German far-right rock band Landser, which show footage from World War II depicting Nazi military operations.

Report Mainz, which is due to air the program, said in a statement that Social Democrat (SPD) parliamentarian Dieter Wiefelspuetz said airing the clips on YouTube in Germany was scandalous. Report Mainz quoted him as saying: “Publishing these films amounts to aiding and abetting incitement of the people.”

You know, the older I get, the less sure I am about dealing with hate speech, particularly in a context like YouTube. After all, the web has increasingly sophisticated filtering mechanisms which enable the truth to bubble to the top. Nothing lives in isolation online, and so people who comment on and link to a hateful video can dilute much of its power. Is metadata a reasonable replacement for anti-hate speech laws?

Being a Caucasian, male, straight Westerner, I’m pretty much in every majority group you’d care to identify, and so I’m not really the target of any such speech. I’d probably feel differently if my grandparents died at Auschwitz.

I couldn’t figure out how to tastefully work in a reference to JewTube in this post, but it’s just staring us in the face, isn’t it?

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Comments: 16 Responses so far

Ed Kohler
August 28th, 2007
6:18 am

Blame Canada.

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jOE FETZER Reply:
December 12th, 2008 at 4:12 pm

A.Gizzo@yahoo.com The nazis of the super fourth reich is pssible in america,The professor lied before congress that he was not a nazi!

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Oliver Stebich Reply:
January 17th, 2009 at 7:49 pm

That is Bullshit Nazis killed 6 million jews during the holocaust,and week of broken glass nov 9,1938!

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Manni
August 28th, 2007
6:59 am

The grandparents of the people that made those German anti hate speech laws probably didn’t die in Auschwitz either.

That they didn’t want to hear antisemtic or other crap from their fellow Germans was an understandable notion back after the war (still is, of course). But it’s about time those laws get revised and adapted to our present knowledge.

But what would television journalists do then? They could spend their time learning what the internet is. Just imagine what the author of that piece about Youtube must have thought. “Oooh, there’s hate speech on the internet. What a scandal! What a story! Pulitzer price! Now!”

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alexis
August 28th, 2007
7:34 am

Being a male, Caucasian, straight, Westerner-

you forgot to add “middle class”. :)

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jOE FETZER Reply:
December 12th, 2008 at 4:13 pm

kutadane@cardiff.cox.net Dane how’s everything going? I’m glad you got the nazi charges dismissed!

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jOE FETZER Reply:
December 12th, 2008 at 4:15 pm

Now you can’t prove it while gong to eastchester high school vinny petelli,and angelo gizzo and joe fetzer used to tease someone that’s why most of the bad things happened! but it isn’t easy beacuse of the DVD video tapes.

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Vince
March 4th, 2008
5:46 pm

The problem of hate speech on youtube will not disappear without strong legal action. Just try to report racist, threatening hate speech on Youtube. Not only will your reports be ignored, you will be blocked as a spammer if you process more than a dozen reports. The simple fact is that Youtube makes money per hit, and more comments on videos means more hits, and the new system of ‘rating’ comments means even more hits. Comments are like crack cocaine to youtube users, and Youtube profits from every hateful and provocative comment it hosts. In a nutshell, Youtube publishes unimaginable volumes of hate speech every day, and yet we criticize China, for instance, for attempting to block this social menace. No-nonsense legal action is required to bring Youtube in line with standards of decency.

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Oliver Stebich Reply:
January 17th, 2009 at 7:53 pm

No you will not take strong legal action against the you tube Nazis were much more worse then the japs,they killed lots of people,destroyed lots amounts destuction to public and private things.Cities towns,villages,not lethal injection,or zyloken B posining or die in a plane or headache,by death by hanging.

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phil
March 23rd, 2008
7:31 pm

youtube is sadly a home for chickenshit nazi wanna bes.. youtube is home to nazis, porn freaks , theres maybe 90% good stuff on youtube , sadly nothing will change. no courts will stop the nazi parasites, we all know they are pathetic spineless losers.what decent normal person wastes their time w that crap?

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wil69r
December 28th, 2008
6:20 pm

What happend to freedom of speech.

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12 Reply:
January 3rd, 2009 at 1:36 am

people like you may potentially enable genocide- go to youtube & you’ll see that hate speech is out of control. Don’t use that freedom of speech crap.

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Oliver Stebich Reply:
March 19th, 2009 at 8:09 pm

PLane trip to ny will kill hiroo,die in 50 anpell drive house in Eastchester,Don’t go on american airlines flight 160 to NEw york.

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Sharon kaplan Reply:
September 4th, 2009 at 6:09 am

I do not enjoy My sister Tomoko and my brother in law,making death threats it is a cyber crime and it is going to a big court! That is not allowed take for example terrorist makes a call that there is a bomb where there isn’t any.That is terrorism this is the same.

Oliver Stebich
April 13th, 2009
8:16 pm

Ending is coming after april 21,2009 death without a soul is painful my father Hideo is Bad!

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Sharon kaplan
July 10th, 2009
1:42 pm

Dear sharon,Do you think there are nazis working At the MHA in white plains NY?Stand by lethal injection on monday,beacuse someone is a terrorist!

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