YouTube Refuses To Remove Sam Pepper's 'Killing Best Friend Prank'
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/youtube-sam-pepper-killing-best-friend_565dad77e4b079b2818ba83e
By now, you've probably heard about or seen Sam Pepper's
"Killing Best Friend Prank" video, where the blue-haired
YouTuber pranks Vine user Sam Golbach, whose best friend Colby
Brock is in on the joke. By the end of the video, Golbach is
emotionally distraught after believing he witnessed a masked
stranger execute Brock before his eyes. Hilarious, right? Not
so much. The video has sparked a public outcry in social media
circles with many calling for its removal because of the
disturbing content, but according to the BBC, YouTube insists
that Pepper did not break any of its community guidelines.
- - -
Google is wrong on this one -- very, very wrong. However, it needs to be
discussed in a broader and complicated context of social media abuse and
responsibility, so I won't attempt to detail the issues here but will
cover this all in a formal blog posting. Hopefully needless to say, any
reasonable human beings should fairly easily see why this video -- and
the inspiration it could provide to others -- is at the least extremely
problematic, especially in a global context when governments around the
world are already pushing ever more draconian censorship schemes. Google
needs to rethink this, very carefully.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein ([email protected]): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Founder:
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://google.com/+LaurenWeinstein
Twitter: http://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
I have consulted to Google, but I am not currently doing so.
My opinions expressed here are mine alone.
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