A Texas university lecturer argues that with the public relying on Twitter, YouTube and other social media outlets for breaking news, it is important that they uphold the principles of free speech even when it comes to horrific images as the ISIS beheading of journalist James Foley. (Houston Post, September 6, 2014, by Robert Quigley)
The posting of the video of Foley’s execution puts the social media in a bind. Either they convey the terrorist’s evil message or violate the Constitutional mandate for unfettered free speech. YouTube gave itself more latitude in dealing with the videos with guidelines in place for removing postings by U.S. government designated terrorist groups and content that incites violence or depicts gratuitous violence . (Forbes, September 3, 2014, by Jeff Bercovici)
In the meantime, reddit took down the nude photos of actress Jennifer Lawrence and others that were stolen and posted by a hacker. Even as the photos were removed, reddit CEO Yishan Wong reaffirmed the company’s policy of a free and open forum with responsibility squarely on those persons doing the posting. “We uphold the ideal of free speech on reddit as much as possible not because we are legally bound to, but because we believe that you – the user – has the right to choose between right and wrong, good and evil, and that it is your responsibility to do so,” Wong wrote. (SlashGear, September 7, 2014, by Chris Davis)
Anthony Ha of TechCrunch, September 7, 2014, describes reddit’s position – claiming to maintain the poster as the ultimate arbitrator just as they take down the photos – as “weird.” He quotes Wong writing that they don’t ban content for “being morally bad” but for breaking their rules including in the case of the nude photos violating copyright.