Oiling GP Cogs

Monday, April 30, 2007

“YouTube has no ethics, it's been created for the sole purpose of entertainment and money.” Do you agree?

Youtube, although possibly considered a newcomer in the cyberspace, having been founded just two years ago, has already seen the waves of its impact on world today where exchange of information occurs in a matter of milliseconds. As Youtube functions mainly as a video-sharing website where users upload videos on topics of their choice, some of which choosing to share snippets of their personal lives while others on more worldly issues such as politics, the inevitable comparison between the importance of freedom of speech and the need for censorship and discretion with regards to the material posted by individuals to protect copyright and social cohesion often arises.
On what grounds, then, should editors ban videos in order to ensure maximum freedom that does not go beyond the boundaries of what is acceptable and lawful in society?
I strongly feel that Youtube should not only focus on banning sexually obscene videos, and those with scenes containing excessive gore that may cause detrimental psychological effects when exposed to the young, as it is already practising.
The management of Youtube should also consider whether the videos it permits to circulate threaten the moral and cultural expectations of any particular community. For example, in the incident in which a 44-second film focused on insulting the Thai king was posted on Youtube, the management had refused to remove the video and this caused the Thai government to ban access to Youtube. Although some may argue that Youtube has an international and not exclusively Thai audience and thus it is not directly necessary to consider the standards of any particular country, the management should still consider the fact that access is also available in Thailand. The very fact that a video insulting a country’s widely respected figure head could have been so freely broadcasted shows an utter lack of respect for an entire populace and thus has serious implications about Youtube’s regard for ethics.

1 Comments:

Blogger WOOHOO! said...

The introduction was well written. Fluency is there, has demonstrated your good command of English. However, your stand on the question 'Do you agree that YouTube has no ethnics...'. It seems that your essay focuses more on the banning videos in order to ensure maximum freedom that does not go beyond the boundaries of what is acceptable and lawful in society.

May 17, 2007 at 6:22 AM  

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