SUMMER PROJECT/Current AP World History: I'm thinking this might be a good topic for our debate day with Ms. Banks class. Read the article at the link below so you can post and/or be ready to participate in our class debate:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/05/20/youtube.lieberman/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
Questions to ponder:
Should Youtube remove the videos from al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations? Some of them? All of them? Why or why not?
8 comments:
In my opinion You Tube's argument of free speech is irrelevant. The freedom of speech right is in the U.S. Bill of Rights, therefore applying to only our citizens. With the information I have the posters of the controversial videos are not U.S. citizens.
-Billy
Bonjour, Mrs. Stotler! I think the videos should stay on the site because we are all about free speech in America, even though it seems like we aren't. In this country, it's okay to say that you hate the president, or that you don't agree with what we are doing within the government. Why should their videos get taken down when we have videos speaking bad about their country, making fun of their country, terrizing their country. The videos don't have to be looked at-no one is forcing your eyes to look at the screen, or click on that certain video. Isn't America trying to make everyone free? Why not start here, on a site that is international, and let them voice their opinions. They are already terrorists, do we really need to give them another reason to hate us?
~H. Baker
Okay, say we allow the videos to remain on the site. In a way, wouldn't that be saying that it's okay to be a terrorist. Think about it. We'd be protecting them.
Also, if we cut them slack on this one little thing, how seriously are they going to be able to take us on bigger issues? And more importantly, how many more times are they going to try to test our government if they know that they can claim justification using our laws?
- Katarina
Interesting discussion...you know I love it when people argue on both sides! Billy, if the terrorists WERE American citizens, would their Youtube speech be protected? Heather, are you suggesting that we don't want to make the terrorists more angry than they already are, so let's just appease them?
Not aplease them, just not do something to have them be like "Those filthy Americans, taking down our stuff for stupid reasons! How can they say it is okay to voice against the government when we can't voice against it" ...or something like that. Of course, when u think about it, they would probably take down the videos. I'm not passionate about this topic anymore, lol sorry.
~H. Baker
Most of the videos should stay. I agree with youtube removing the videos that promote violence or hate speech. All other videos should be allowed and protected as free speech.
I will decide, from all the information, what to believe. The youtube videos should be posted and I'll choose to watch, believe, or ignore.
-Korinne
I think that it is important to leave the videos up because by taking them down i feel it is like we are giving in to them, it's probably the reaction they were looking for. Also YouTube is a very popular site, alot of teens and kids spend their time watching videos, if YouTube were to leave the videos of the terrorists, kids who don't pay attention to news or teachers at school may get an awakening of whats really going on in the world. Hiding violence does not mean it will eliminate it, it just means people will be uninformed.
If parents have a problem with their kids viewing violence they shouldn't let their kids on the website.
Also i think watching the videos serves the same purpose having history classes has. We learn about violent wars and violent racial discrimination in history class, we watch movies on it too, and why? So we don't repeat it, why should watching terrorist videos be any different?
Youtube should not be forced to remove these videos from terrorist organizations. Knowledge is power. The more we know about these people, the better we can defend ourselves against them. The article says that some of these videos showed U.S. soldiers being hurt or even killed and therefore should be removed from the site. I disagree. It seems like the media spends less and less time on the important issues, like covering what is happening to our brave men and women who are fighting and sometimes dying for our country in Iraq. At least people can see through these videos why we are fighting terrorism and why we must continue to do so.
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