The video of Islamic terrorist group ISIS beheading a second American is much harder to find on the internet thanks to a secret coalition of the biggest social media and streaming video outlets.
An anonymous source revealed to the Times of Israel that Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and others agreed to work together to keep the video from being uploaded and spread throughout the world on their systems. Copies of the video uploaded to YouTube were deleted within seconds of their upload so other sites could not link them.
“It’s been very interesting, with this second beheading, how very little of those images have been passed around,” said Family Online Safety Institute CEO Stephen Balkam, who serves on Facebook’s safety advisory board. “It’s very difficult to find them unless you know of some darker places on the web.”
The Times of Israel also reported that after the first beheading video the social outlets decided to take a stand against the terrorists spreading their hate online.
The networks involved refused to give media interviews although YouTube released a statement saying they have clear policies to remove videos aimed at inciting violence.
Online privacy advocates said the censoring of the video could be a very dangerous precedent although most would endorse a way to keep the video from the internet if the discussion of the incident could continue to freely flow.
