(Via Techdirt.)

Will YouTube Ban Videos Of Putting Your Head In The Sand Next?: “It appears that Google’s YouTube subsidiary is caving to various government pressure concerning whatever videos the government doesn’t like. This started a while back when Google gave in to pressure from Thailand’s government to ban videos critical of that made fun of the country’s king. But, now the pace is ramping up. Last week, Google gave in to Senator Lieberman, agreeing to ban videos from terrorists, and the latest is giving in to pressure from the UK government to ban videos that show weapons used to intimidate people. Now, YouTube has always banned hate speech or threatening videos, so this new ban seems to go above and beyond that — including videos that show weapons being used to intimidate that aren’t threatening videos themselves. That seems pretty pointless again. The same videos will quickly appear on other sites, and rather than using YouTube as a way to track down anyone who might be breaking the law, Google is helping the UK government put their head in the sand and pretend no one ever is filmed doing anything bad with weapons.