Non-Gratuitous Violence
Totalitarian repression may be keeping the television networks from covering the protests in Iran, but the revolution there is being videotaped, in all its gory, gut-wrenching horror.
If we had seen honest video of what was happening in Iraq in 2003, how quickly might we have withdrawn troops in response to public disgust? How many lives might we have saved?
Nico Pitney at his invaluable Iran liveblog:
12:10 AM ET -- YouTube gets it.
YouTube said it had relaxed its usual restrictions on violent videos to allow the images from Iran to reach the rest of the world."In general, we do not allow graphic or gratuitous violence on YouTube," the company said in a statement. "However, we make exceptions for videos that have educational, documentary, or scientific value. The limitations being placed on mainstream media reporting from within Iran make it even more important that citizens in Iran be able to use YouTube to capture their experiences for the world to see."
YouTube is one of the last broadcasters standing in Iran. The Iranian government knows it (the censors have been able to cut YouTube traffic in Iran by 90 percent) -- and so do the folks at YouTube. Just check out their Citizen Tube site, overseen by Steve Groves, which is chock full of Iran videos.
Watch them, forward them, talk about them.
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1 comment:
Again, I recommend bbc.com, not instead of but in addition to YouTube. This is, as YD has tried to intimate, history in the making, and it's just possible that lives are being saved because the whole world is watching - the Iranian authorities dare not simply mow down the offending protesters, because it's being looked at by everyone.
Frankly, it's even more exciting than actually being there, because no one's shooting at us out here in the internet-o-sphere.
And the silent protests are just slightly eerie.
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