[Infowarrior] - YouTube bans terrorism training videos

[Richard Forno]

YouTube bans terrorism training videos
Friday, 12 September, 2008


http://news.sbs.com.au/worldnewsaustralia/youtube_bans_terrorism_training_videos_557508

Terrorist training videos will be banned from appearing on YouTube,  
under revised new guidelines being implemented by the popular video- 
sharing site.

The Google-owned portal will ban footage that advertises terrorism or  
extremist causes and supporters of the change hope it will blunt al- 
Qaeda's strong media online campaign.

The move comes after pressure on the internet search engine from  
Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman.

In addition to the ban on terror training videos, the new YouTube  
guidelines includes bans on videos that incite others to commit  
violent acts, videos on how to make bombs, and footage of sniper  
attacks.

The internet has become a powerful tool for terrorism recruitment.  
What was once conducted at secret training camps in Afghanistan is now  
available to anyone, anywhere because of the web.

Chatrooms are potent recruitment tools, but counterterrorism officials  
have found terrorist-sponsored videos are also key parts of al-Qaeda's  
propaganda machine.

"It's good news if there are less of these on the web," FBI spokesman  
Richard Kolko said. "But many of these jihadist videos appear on  
different websites around the world, and any time there is  
investigative or intelligence value we actively pursue it."



How to slit throats



There have been online terror-training videos ranging from how to slit  
a victim's throat and how to make suicide vests to how to make  
explosives from homemade ingredients and how to stalk people and  
ambush them, said Bruce Hoffman, a counterterrorism expert and  
professor at Georgetown University.

Hoffman said he does not know whether the videos were posted on  
YouTube, but they have been available at other sites online.

A year ago, a Homeland Security Department intelligence assessment  
said: "The availability of easily accessible messages with targeted  
language may speed the radicalisation process in the homeland for  
those already susceptible to violent extremism."

Recognising the growing threat of radicalisation, Lieberman - the  
Democrat-turned-independent who chairs the Senate Homeland Security  
and Governmental Affairs Committee - asked Google to ban videos from  
al-Qaeda and other Islamist terror groups.

He said the private sector also has a role in protecting the United  
States from terrorists. By banning these videos on YouTube, "Google  
will make a singularly important contribution to this important  
national effort," Lieberman wrote to Google's chairman and chief  
executive, Eric Schmidt, in May.



Dealing with extremists



Representatives of Google and YouTube would not respond to questions  
about Lieberman's appeal.

Despite the move there is a debate among radicalisation experts of  
whether shutting down extremist sites is the most effective way to  
counter the threat.

They say keeping them online allows analysts and investigators to  
monitor what is being said and in some cases who is saying it.

"The reality is by shutting it down, it is more or less a game of  
whack-a-mole: it pops up somewhere else," said Frank Ciluffo, homeland  
security director at George Washington University.

However, he said, forcing extremists to find other ways to post videos  
could give officials a better opportunity to monitor them.

Source: AAP