Bernaisesource

Up until now, one of the biggest concerns facing YouTube has been copyright violations.

But, as reported by Edward Wyatt in the New York Times last Friday, their latest challenge has to do with videos of the violence in Iraq that are finding their way onto the wildly popular site.  Some of the footage of American casualties are thought to be from enemy combatants; other videos of the war are from American soldiers.

The Internet and new communications technologies are extending the reality of the Iraq war beyond the printed page and news broadcasts.  Even with the Bush Administration’s ban on pictures of coffins of American military personnel and certain Pentagon restrictions on videotapes of actual combat taken by the news media, the American public is getting unprecedented access to the grim reality of war.

The Times reported that YouTube has generated some controversy and backlash from the pulling of dozens of videos at the request of visitors to the site. 

From my perspective, I oppose censorship, but I am personally non-the-worse by not seeing the horrors of sniper attacks and roadside bombings.  Of course the company does have the right to monitor submissions.

In graphic detail, these videotapes are just another reminder of how user generated content is shifting the balance of power and altering the flow of information.  

As YouTube’s actions indicate, you don’t have to live in Beijing to appreciate the ethical, freedom of speech, public disclosure questions that new media is raising on the battle field and in corporate offices.  How do you assert control and support free expression?  What is the boundary between appropriate and inappropriate?  Who has the "right" to post on an online forum?  Does the source of the information make the subject matter more acceptable?

While I would never, never equate the challenges of war with the communications challenges facing today’s businesses, new media is forcing everyone to ask what the public needs to know, when it needs to know it and who has the right to say it.

Let me get back to you.

Technorati Tags: Social Media; Iraq; YouTube;