Special Reports & Tweets - 20140822_SpecialReport_Alex
Aired: 2014-08-22
Duration: 02:28


=== Censorship Concerns (02:28) ===

[00:00:00]  Twitter has announced that it's actively suspending accounts that share graphic images or footage
[00:00:12]  of the alleged beheading of the American journalist James Foley.
[00:00:16]  An online campaign was quickly launched calling for a blackout of the group, saying don't share video, give them nothing.
[00:00:22]  YouTube has also repeatedly pulled the video down.
[00:00:25]  British police have actually warned the public that just watching the James Foley video may be a criminal offense under terrorism legislation.
[00:00:34]  And a journalist should not be committing an act of terrorism for merely viewing a video for investigative or reporting purposes.
[00:00:42]  Of course, British authorities aren't going to pursue everyone who watches or disseminates the video.
[00:00:47]  But threats, combined with selective enforcement, We'll set the pretext that governments can decide what information is off-limits to the general public.
[00:00:56]  ISIS has had great success on social media, easily sharing their graphic images and extremist ideology.
[00:01:03]  Now, in one respect, it is important to deny this PR-savvy terror group the celebrity that they desire.
[00:01:10]  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.
[00:01:20]  So why censor now?
[00:01:22]  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.
[00:01:32]  And that's why censorship of the James Foley video is so concerning.
[00:01:37]  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.
[00:01:46]  Yet it is the James Foley video That Obama says shocks the consciousness of the world.
[00:01:52]  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.
[00:02:03]  And recall that the government recently declared that liberty lovers and patriots and tea partiers were people holding extremist ideology.
[00:02:12]  So are they setting the precedent that any political content posted by these groups could be censored?
[00:02:17]  The video of this alleged murder is already being exploited by the state so it can ramp up re-intervention in Iraq.
[00:02:23]  When people harm Americans anywhere, we do what's necessary to see that justice is done.