Not surprising, considering Youtube hasn’t been friendly to pro-life  issues in the past. Live Action, the group spearheaded by Lila Rose who released the explosive Planned Parenthood investigation videos just this week, was told this evening by Youtube that they had until tomorrow evening to remove the video pending “privacy concerns.”

You have 48 hours to take action on the complaint. If you remove the alleged violation from the site within the 48 hours, the complaint filed will then be closed.

[...]

When uploading videos in the future, please remember not to post someone else’s image or personal information without their consent. Personal information includes, but is not limited to, Social Security number, National Identification number, bank account number or contact information (e.g. home address, email address).

What isn’t clear is what “privacy violation” occurred. No personal information was released about Amy Woodruff or anyone else in the video. Woodruff was publicly fired by Planned Parenthood in a statement released by Phyllis Kinsler, the Executive Director of Planned Parenthood of central Jersey.

“We were profoundly shocked when we viewed the videotape released [Tuesday] morning, which depicted an employee of one of our health centers behaving in a repugnant manner that is inconsistent with our standards of care and is completely unacceptable.”

That by itself seems to debunk any claim of privacy violation.

(more…)

Ever since Saturday’s terrible tragedy in Tucson, Arizona, conservatives have endured, to use my colleague Dana Loesch’s words, a massive orchestration of defamation against them.  And of all the vitriol that has been hurled around the internet, no other target has sustained more of it than Sarah Palin.

Within minutes of the shooting Saturday, the onslaught of inflamed rhetoric was immediate.  And by the time Sheriff Clarence Dupnik made his now infamous accusations against right-wing radio and TV, which he’s since confirmed are nothing more than opinion, he’d stoked up the hate level online to a boiling point.  I watched as so many on the left took to Twitter to join the herd.  It eerily reminded me of my college days – it was like our Greek initiation rituals, when hopeful fraternity pledges take to public places to perform acts of stupidity as proof of loyalty to their organization.  I was stunned by the hundreds and hundreds of brazenly stupid threats of death against a woman whom most of these people had never even met.

Others were just as shocked.  In fact, a couple of conservatives on Twitter – @coyotered9 and @JoeKenHa – were so disgusted that they decided to collect just a sampling of these public tweets and compile them into a slide show of sorts.

The result was this video, Twitter Users Wish Death on Sarah Palin, originally posted at YouTube.  It’s since been cross-posted on Vimeo because of a takedown notice they received from YouTube in response to a privacy complaint.  That’s right, one of the haters who was brave enough to publicly tweet her yearning for the death of a former Governor and Vice Presidential candidate is now suddenly concerned for her Twitter privacy.

(more…)

From Citizentube.com:

In these 2010 midterm elections, campaigns, voters, and interest groups have continued to innovate new ways to share their political opinions on YouTube. Because YouTube is a platform where anyone can post and share videos globally, you’ve made this platform the vanguard of the political media discussion. Some of these efforts to influence the political dialog on YouTube were more successful than others. Today, we’re sharing who emerged on top of the YouTube elections heap – and we’re going strictly by the numbers.

The top 10 most-viewed videos, sourced from all videos categorized as “News & Politics” on YouTube, are a mixed bag of official campaign videos, user-generated content and videos from interest groups:

(more…)

Using the NAACP’s resolution against Tea Party “racism” as a model, I hereby ask YouTube to repudiate their racist users.

I take no issue with Google’s YouTube community. I believe in freedom of assembly and people raising their voices in a democracy. What I take issue with is the YouTube’s continued tolerance for bigotry and bigoted statements. The time has come for them to accept the responsibility that comes with influence and make clear there is no place for racism & anti-Semitism, homophobia and other forms of bigotry on their website.

The following are real comments from YouTube users on the Black & Right channel alone. They have not been Photoshopped and distributed by Think Progress.

The following are a select group of comments from just one of my videos….

y cant i have a white History Month becuz it would be racist but its not racist when nigger get one its not that is fucking bull shit
— The219redneck

Niggers should go back to the forest where they belong! There only semi usefull as slaves after all.
— Zcabbage

black history month should be where all the niggers go back to slavery to pick the cotton for the white folks. KKK ALL THE WAY!!!!!!!!!
— 94Garay

(more…)

From Politico’s Ben Smith

CBS and NBC have refused to air a provocative ad from the confrontational, well-funded National Republican Trust PAC that calls on Americans to oppose the building of a mosque two blocks from the World Trade Center site. The ad — which has about 100,000 views on YouTube — intersperses some of the most horrifying images from the Sept. 11 attacks with the sounds of Muslim prayer and images of Muslim militants. It focuses on what’s become a divisive — and partisan — issue in New York state, the erection of a Muslim cultural center on Park Place, in the neighborhood near the fallen towers.

Smith also includes a statement from NBC Universal advertising standards manager Jennifer Riley:

“An ad questioning the wisdom of building a mosque at ground zero would meet our issues of public controversy advertising criteria. However, this ad which ambiguously defines ‘they’ as referenced in the spot makes it unclear as to whether the reference is to terrorists or to the Islamic religious organization that is sponsoring the building of the mosque. Consequently, the ad is not acceptable under our guidelines for broadcast.”

NBC is saying it’s unfair to conflate those who are building the ground zero mosque with Islamic extremists.  But is it? The Imam behind the Ground Zero Islamic center and mosque, Feisal Abdul Rauf, once said about the 9/11 terror attacks, “the United States policies were an accessory to the crime that happened.” Sounds like he’s holding the United States partially responsible for 9/11. Furthermore, the New York Post reported last month that Imam Rauf was tied to last month’s flotilla that tried to break Israel’s blockade of Hamas-run Gaza (for those of you who remember pre-Obama America, Israel is historically one of our closest allies). (more…)

Update 1/30: The Associated Press has removed the video highlighted below.  While we thank the AP for taking the video down, we request they also scrub the headline “Suspects in Landrieu Break-in Appear in Court” from Associated Press pages and channels.  Additionally, we request the AP issue a formal correction for posting this video and headline.

In the above Associated Press video, which is posted to the Associated Press YouTube Channel, “Suspects in Landrieu Break-in Appear in Court “of January 28th, 2010, the Associated Press makes an unverifiable claim that James O’Keefe and the three other conservative activists broke-in to the offices of Sen. Mary Landrieu. First in the headline, then in the audio:

Three of the four men charged with breaking in to Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu’s office…

The description of the video as it appears on YouTube also references a break-in:

Three of the four men charged with breaking into Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu’s New Orleans office appeared in court Wednesday. (Jan. 28)

There are no allegations of a “break-in” in the FBI affidavit and Mr. O’Keefe has gone on record denying claims that he broke in to the Senator’s office.

We kindly ask you to issue a correction/retraction to the story.

We have been/will be making similar requests of other news sources to correct similar errors.  Some, such as the Washington Post, MSNBC’s David Shuster, and Talking Points Memo already have posted corrections or retractions.