{EAV:35b95a5e5ce2aabd}
Whilst I’m completely against cruelty to animals and a committed vegetarian and supporter of SAFE etc. and agree with the sentiment of this cause, I think it’s misguided.
http://www.causes.com/causes/567010-stop-youtube-accepting-and-showing-cruelty-to-animals/actions (385’775 members, including one Green MP)
For a start it is technically (as in technologically) impossible for Youtube to not accept a video. They do not have the technology (nor is it invented) to electronically discover that a video contains animal cruelty, nor do they have the manpower to have someone watch the entirety of every single video uploaded to Youtube. (http://blog.ukfast.co.uk/2012/01/24/an-hour-of-video-posted-every-second-on-youtube/) The only answer here would be charging subscription fees so they could pay for thousands of people to monitor every second of video, this would fail as people would just start using a new free site, guaranteed.
Also, whilst Youtube is enabling them to show their perversions, and they are disgusting, it also allows for them to be tracked down and arrested so they can no longer commit their heinous crimes.
What would be a much more effective cause would be getting people to down vote and report Youtube videos of animal cruelty and for harsher prosecution of offenders. Youtube already has a ban on these videos, once they’re reported they’ll be taken down.
The reason that I posted this is that a couple of hundred of my friends have joined this cause, I initially joined this cause. I must admit I pretty much join something if ti sounds close to my ideals without putting too much thought into it, which I’m guessing quite a few of my friends also did, you see – ‘Stop animal cruelty’ and you think ‘Yeah I’m down for stopping that’ and you join.
This is where the problem is, the cognitive dissonance perhaps? This same thing is being used to pass laws to get ‘Child porn off the internet through DNS filtering’. Sounds good when someone says ‘This bill stops child porn’ – Everyones like ‘Hell yeah! Child porns terrible!’ and indeed it is. But the answer to the problem is not a solution at all, and begins either an erosion in civil liberties or creates another problem, multiplying problems all over the show.
We’ve all been fooled, or misdirected, lets help each other remain vigilant, lets knock those child abusers off Youtube, help law enforcement identify them and lock them up, lets harness the power of the crowd, not for a Cause, but for THE cause, protecting animals and punishing their persecutors.
Also some animal abuse videos on Youtube are highly educational, check this one out from Paul McCartney, YUM!
We need to be careful about censorship. The are better ways to address and change to make a better world.
Hear hear Mr Miller
Good one Max. Its very easy to jump on simple solutions that very often create problems worse than the ones they fix. Who was it said that sunlight is the best disinfectant?
Thankyou Nandor, I find myself caught up with the bandwagon sometimes, it took me many years for instance to realize what Waitangi day was all about and look into the history of our country. Previously, to be honest, I’d thought, like most of my other young white male peers, that Maori were whinging about ancient history and just keen for a handout, pretty much the bile that Holmes spewed in The Herald.
Whilst I’m ashamed to admit it, many of my friends and people I interact with still feel the same way, luckily coming from ignorance myself I find myself better equipped to help educate them. Before I pull a Holmes, my apologies for segueing into a completely unrelated topic, at least I had the courtesy to not do it twice in the original post :/
In relation to tech issues and Internet browsing, its something people are clearly still coming to terms with, especially in light of John Key’s statement that ‘their are no rules/regulations in place surround Ministers emails’ after Anonymous hacked into them last year.