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| Time | Text |
|---|---|
| Twitter has announced that it's actively suspending accounts that share graphic images or footage | |
| of the alleged beheading of the American journalist James Foley. | |
| An online campaign was quickly launched calling for a blackout of the group, saying don't share video, give them nothing. | |
| YouTube has also repeatedly pulled the video down. | |
| British police have actually warned the public that just watching the James Foley video may be a criminal offense under terrorism legislation. | |
| And a journalist should not be committing an act of terrorism for merely viewing a video for investigative or reporting purposes. | |
| Of course, British authorities aren't going to pursue everyone who watches or disseminates the video. | |
| But threats, combined with selective enforcement, We'll set the pretext that governments can decide what information is off-limits to the general public. | |
| ISIS has had great success on social media, easily sharing their graphic images and extremist ideology. | |
| Now, in one respect, it is important to deny this PR-savvy terror group the celebrity that they desire. | |
| But on the other hand, it is only through viewing these horrific acts that people will actually grasp the sheer terror that this group is capable of and committing on a daily basis. | |
| So why censor now? | |
| Twitter didn't remove any of the graphic images making the rounds for more than a year now of Christians, Iraqis, Syrians, soldiers and others slaughtered by ISIS. | |
| And that's why censorship of the James Foley video is so concerning. | |
| In terms of brutality, the video pales in comparison to all the other gruesome images and videos that have been posted by this terrorist organization. | |
| Yet it is the James Foley video That Obama says shocks the consciousness of the world. | |
| Censoring the video creates a pretext that governments can declare any content whatsoever on the internet to be extremist in nature and therefore off-limits to the general public. | |
| And recall that the government recently declared that liberty lovers and patriots and tea partiers were people holding extremist ideology. | |
| So are they setting the precedent that any political content posted by these groups could be censored? | |
| The video of this alleged murder is already being exploited by the state so it can ramp up re-intervention in Iraq. | |
| When people harm Americans anywhere, we do what's necessary to see that justice is done. |
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