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posted by LaminatorX on Wednesday August 20 2014, @08:40PM   Printer-friendly
from the if-it-bleeds-it-leads dept.

Asian Image reports that a campaign has been launched on Twitter urging people not to share a video purporting to show the murder of James Foley and thousands of ordinary users from around the world have backed the plan to deny IS publicity in horror at the horrific beheading footage, using the hashtag #ISISmediablackout. Twitter's chief executive Dick Costolo said the firm was taking action against accounts which spread the video. Still images from the video were removed from Twitter. Some individuals, including Al Jazeera America’s Wajahat Ali, said sharing the images of Foley’s apparent death on social media played into the militant group’s hands while others users suggested journalists “have a responsibility” to report murder.

The video of Foley’s purported killing was initially posted on YouTube, but taken down shortly afterward. Some criticized YouTube for not taking the video down quickly enough. "It's lucky that video didn't have a unlicensed Katy Perry song as a soundtrack or it would've been deleted from YouTube in seconds," wrote Tom Gara. A YouTube spokesperson would not say how long the video had remained posted on the site. The spokesperson said the company had "clear policies that prohibit content like gratuitous violence, hate speech and incitement to commit violent acts, and we remove videos violating these policies when flagged by our users".

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  • (Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 20 2014, @08:47PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 20 2014, @08:47PM (#83690)

    Please shun the following link: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=888_1408487001 [liveleak.com]

    • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Buck Feta on Wednesday August 20 2014, @09:28PM

      by Buck Feta (958) on Wednesday August 20 2014, @09:28PM (#83705) Journal

      First time I've hoped for a Rick Roll link.

      --
      - fractious political commentary goes here -
    • (Score: 2) by BasilBrush on Thursday August 21 2014, @02:05PM

      by BasilBrush (3994) on Thursday August 21 2014, @02:05PM (#83938)

      Shame you didn't have the balls to post that with your username.

      --
      Hurrah! Quoting works now!
  • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday August 20 2014, @08:50PM

    by tangomargarine (667) on Wednesday August 20 2014, @08:50PM (#83693)

    Yes, let's get people to stop talking about it by telling everybody to talk about it.

    Sup dawg, I heard you like not watching videos, so I gave you a video link so you can not watch it while you would have been not watching it anyway.

    --
    "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 20 2014, @09:19PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 20 2014, @09:19PM (#83702)

      The Streisand effect only applies to something that hasn't already been significantly publicized. When the president of the united states talks about it in an official speech it doesn't get much more publicized than that.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by looorg on Wednesday August 20 2014, @09:42PM

      by looorg (578) on Wednesday August 20 2014, @09:42PM (#83711)

      I think there is a difference between the two. It's not a matter of stopping to talk about what is happening. You can talk about it all you want. But I don't see how sharing and watching images of people being beheaded, or murdered in some other fashion, really brings anything good to the discussion. Unless you are having a discussion about actual beheading techniques and want to compare or critique it.

      • (Score: 1) by Pessime on Wednesday August 20 2014, @09:49PM

        by Pessime (4448) on Wednesday August 20 2014, @09:49PM (#83712)

        There is the possible argument that by sharing the video widely, it becomes more difficult to be used and/or controlled by various parties for propoganda purposes.

        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by BasilBrush on Thursday August 21 2014, @02:49PM

          by BasilBrush (3994) on Thursday August 21 2014, @02:49PM (#83957)

          That possible argument would be wrong. In fact it would be complete nonsense.

          --
          Hurrah! Quoting works now!
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 20 2014, @10:05PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 20 2014, @10:05PM (#83715)

        The only murder video I ever watched was the one of Neda Soltan's murder. [wikipedia.org] It affected me profoundly, way more than I was expecting. I think there is value in seeing the muder of an innocent, it reminds you of your humanity in a unique and powerful way. Of course there will be people who are not so effected. But I think someone who watches a murder and is not affected has much greater problems of their own than giving a terrorist group some extra publicity.

  • (Score: 2) by Hartree on Wednesday August 20 2014, @10:19PM

    by Hartree (195) on Wednesday August 20 2014, @10:19PM (#83719)

    I don't pretend to know very well when things should be posted as news and when they cross the line. Thankfully, I'm not one making those decisions.

    It was a cruel, brutal act. People here in the US are outraged, and well they should be. But how is it different than when ISIS beheaded or shot large numbers of other civilians and then posted video of it?

    My heart goes out to Foley's family. But it goes out just as much to all the Shias, Yazidis, Kurds, "insufficiently pure" Sunnis, and everyone else. They were all just as frightened, suffered the same, and their families are just as heartbroken.

    This group, in truth, has little to do with Islam. The "faith" of these murderers is just a cover for a nihilistic enjoyment of causing suffering and one up-manship of posting death porn videos.

    • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday August 20 2014, @10:33PM

      by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Wednesday August 20 2014, @10:33PM (#83727) Homepage

      I wonder if this is some backhanded way of attempting to save the reputation of Obama(and possibly Bush II), because that beheading would not have happened had Bush and/or Obama avoided dicking around in the Middle-East.

      • (Score: 1) by wantkitteh on Thursday August 21 2014, @08:21AM

        by wantkitteh (3362) on Thursday August 21 2014, @08:21AM (#83861) Homepage Journal

        You'd have to go back a lot further than that to find the root cause, the collective memory of things like that is very long in some places.

        There's a radio program on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday mornings called From Our Own Correspondent. They play a lot of stories from reports out in foreign countries that would be considered deep background and not news. One such story was about a British Army officer who recently had to deal with questions about an errant artillery strike against a civilian village in Afghanistan when there was no artillery in the area and hadn't been for the entire operational duration. Turned out the incident in question was from back in 1915. The decendents of the victims were still pretty pissed and that was the first chance they'd had to confront a member of the military force responsible.

        If you want to understand the nature of the issue better, watch Charlie Wilson's War - not for it's insight into covert operations in Afghanistan, but rather for the story about the little boy who gets a horse for his birthday.

    • (Score: 2) by arslan on Wednesday August 20 2014, @10:42PM

      by arslan (3462) on Wednesday August 20 2014, @10:42PM (#83733)

      You're right, but in this particular case it was a specific message to the U.S. President, and hence the U.S. citizens. They have another U.S. journalist lined up behind James as they pull him out and send the message after what they did to James.

      No I did not see the video, but its all over the newspapers here in Oz quoting all that was said in the video so it wasn't easily shun-able. You can shun the video and send your condolences, but that's not gonna prevent them from their next act on their next U.S. hostage which was clearly spelled out.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 20 2014, @11:21PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 20 2014, @11:21PM (#83748)

      It's not.

  • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 20 2014, @10:29PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 20 2014, @10:29PM (#83723)

    Need to shun islam which is the cause of the beheadings, not a video.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 20 2014, @11:06PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 20 2014, @11:06PM (#83743)

      Need to shun the (some) people that trick the (other) people into violence whether that violence is politically or religiously motivated.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Tork on Thursday August 21 2014, @05:02AM

        by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Thursday August 21 2014, @05:02AM (#83833)
        "Need to shun the (some) people that trick the (other) people into violence whether that violence is politically or religiously motivated."

        Not only is this spot on in the way that the bizarrely modded up parent post isn't, but it also circles us right back to how to approach this. By 'consuming' the video we're giving their message air time. Name a better way to shun them than to devalue their tactic. It's certainly better than messing with innocent people out of ignorance.
        --
        🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 21 2014, @12:42AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 21 2014, @12:42AM (#83770)

      Need to shun islam which is the cause of the beheadings, not a video.

      Because a christian would never behead someone. [nytimes.com]

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 21 2014, @01:57AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 21 2014, @01:57AM (#83794)

        Wrong argument. All Judeo-Christian religion is evil. There is a progressive argument in favor of the Iraqi invasion, on the grounds that it establishes a strong foothold for liberalism and reason in the Middle-East.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 21 2014, @02:03AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 21 2014, @02:03AM (#83796)

          There is a progressive argument in favor of the Iraqi invasion, on the grounds that it establishes a strong foothold for liberalism and reason in the Middle-East.

          You mean a neo-con argument.
          Turns out you can't spread progress by killing thousands of regular people.
          Any real progressive would have known that.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 21 2014, @02:53AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 21 2014, @02:53AM (#83807)

            Israel seems to be following that doctrine and is quite successful [thehypertexts.com] with it.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 21 2014, @05:27AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 21 2014, @05:27AM (#83838)

              Lol.
              Wait, you are joking, right?

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 21 2014, @07:14PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 21 2014, @07:14PM (#84053)

          There is a progressive argument in favor of the Iraqi invasion, on the grounds that it establishes a strong foothold for liberalism and reason in the Middle-East.

          The only place that argument might work is Afghanistan, but they were significantly more progressive and liberal before the US put the Taliban in power. Thus, the US finally trying to clean up their mess isn't establishing a foothold for liberalism, its removing the totalitarian force which removed their previous liberalism.

          If we really cared about "establishing a foothold for liberalism and reason" we'd ally with Turkey to invade Saudi Arabia.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 22 2014, @01:07AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 22 2014, @01:07AM (#84170)

          Wrong argument. All Judeo-Christian religion is evil.

          Because Buddhists are so great. [foreignpolicy.com]

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Magic Oddball on Thursday August 21 2014, @03:28AM

      by Magic Oddball (3847) on Thursday August 21 2014, @03:28AM (#83814) Journal

      No, need to shun trolls and people that are either too bigoted or not bright enough to distinguish between "religion that isn't theirs" and "group of violent militaristic assholes using religion as an excuse for attacking others."

      Seeing bigoted junk like the parent post given a score of "insightful" makes me really wish that I'd get some freaking mod points already...

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 21 2014, @04:50AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 21 2014, @04:50AM (#83828)
      Whoever modded that comment up is a short-sighted idiot. That's like shunning General Motors ovet a vehicular homicide.
    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Bot on Thursday August 21 2014, @09:04AM

      by Bot (3902) on Thursday August 21 2014, @09:04AM (#83864) Journal

      I don't think killing reporters is part of any holy war.

      This video smells of propaganda. The guy ascribed his death to the US policy, yet the effect is an open door to American retaliation. Pull the tail of a lion, the lion attacks you, and people will go "Well you asked for it".

      ISIS, Egyptian goddess' name, gets a lot of arms from who knows where, butchers left and right, grabs media attention to the benefit of their worst enemy (Israel, who for all their hypothetical good intentions are still bombing civilians in their reserve), makes a semipro quality beheading video to provoke America into actions. Well, ISIS guys, if you believe in Allah ask him for guidance because as of now we have a textbook example of terrorism helping the other side. No virgins for you.

      --
      Account abandoned.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 21 2014, @07:16PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 21 2014, @07:16PM (#84054)

        The audience isn't americans. It is potential recruits.
        It carries risk of retaliation, but it also gives them lots of political capital with people who lean anti-western.
        Sort of like the popularity bump Obama got for killing bin Laden.

        • (Score: 2) by Bot on Saturday August 23 2014, @10:59AM

          by Bot (3902) on Saturday August 23 2014, @10:59AM (#84640) Journal
          Potential arab recruits? then speak their language, not western ones. Potential western recruits? Yeah I can't wait to join the good side that... kills innocent civilians just like those imperialists do.... where do I sign up?
          --
          Account abandoned.
      • (Score: 2) by tathra on Thursday August 21 2014, @07:29PM

        by tathra (3367) on Thursday August 21 2014, @07:29PM (#84062)

        the US needs to stay the fuck out because its our fault that ISIS is running amok. if we hadn't invaded and destablized the place, they wouldnt be beheading our journalists, and things would likely only end up even worse if we intervened again unless we do a proper invasion and take the place over for real. if anybody should be going in there to fight ISIS, its the surrounding countries (at least one of which is likely using ISIS as their proxy, and we need to stop fighting wars by proxy since nothing good ever comes from it) since they have a stake in the stability of the area, and if they allow ISIS to grow too much it could be their country invaded next.

        we need to stop the CIA from funneling weapons into the area too since they're almost guaranteed to end up in the hands of insurgents, if not sold directly to them.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 22 2014, @04:03AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 22 2014, @04:03AM (#84223)

          Eh, ISIS is even more about Syria than it is Iraq. And while you might say that our prior support of Assad has contributed to the current conflict, it is even more true that a general lack of support for moderate revolutionaries has created a vacuum that ISIS filled.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 20 2014, @11:15PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 20 2014, @11:15PM (#83745)

    Would rather be forced to stare at lemon party for 24 hours than watch one frame of that video.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 21 2014, @02:26AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 21 2014, @02:26AM (#83799)

      What is a lemon party?
      Girl porn?

      So you haven't seen it. Maybe you could watch it up to the point where the muslim cuts the american's head off after giving a speech in english

      What I took away from this is that these people know they are losing and won't go down without a fight.

      Watch the video. When your kids ask "where were you when world war 3 started?" do remember this.

      • (Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Thursday August 21 2014, @03:14AM

        by Magic Oddball (3847) on Thursday August 21 2014, @03:14AM (#83810) Journal

        Know Your Memes: Lemon Party [knowyourmeme.com]

        There's nothing of value in watching voyeuristic snuff videos, and your rationale makes for a pretty lame excuse, particularly as it makes no real sense to figure "world war three" would result. (For WW3 to take place, standoff would have to exist between the more powerful nations & superpowers -- not "most of the world" versus "a small psychotic third-world religious faction."

        I'm not having kids, and kids are unlikely to ask that particular question regardless. However, I see no reason why explaining to the kid that "I didn't look at the video, because [personal beliefs regarding the topic]" wouldn't suffice if the issue was raised for a school assignment or similar.

      • (Score: 2) by tathra on Thursday August 21 2014, @07:18PM

        by tathra (3367) on Thursday August 21 2014, @07:18PM (#84056)

        Maybe you could watch it up to the point where the extremist cuts the american's head off

        FTFY, though i already know its a waste of time trying to fight bigotry and xenophobia, especially from shills pushing agendas.

  • (Score: 1) by turgid on Thursday August 21 2014, @08:20PM

    by turgid (4318) Subscriber Badge on Thursday August 21 2014, @08:20PM (#84079) Journal

    I really have no desire to watch such a gruesome video of the vicious butchering of an innocent humanitarian, however for some reason, we are told that by simply watching the video in the UK we may be committing a crime.

    There is an explanation in the Guardian [theguardian.com].

    It appears that an anti-terror law, designed to make it illegal for an impressionable youngster to watch, listen to or to read things that might incite them to terrorism, is now "censoring" the news.

    This makes me more than a little uncomfortable.