YouTube and Turkey
YouTube should not have caved. While I think the words in this video were abhorent and am glad the the Greek military is conducting an investigation into it’s source. Pulling it simply because the government of an country which has commited many of it’s own abhorent acts threatens to censor your website is pathetic. Freedom of speech is far more important than people taking offense to what has been said.
Information is always power, always. If Turks don’t want to hear that some unit of the Greek military hates them then they do themselves a disservice. It is the people of Turkey talking to the people of Greece which will ultimately ease any tension between the two. Like an ostrich shoving it’s head in a hole so that it does not see the tiger about to attack it, Turkey can not hide from the hatred of Greeks Christians.
There has been alot of talk around cultural sensitivity with this issue. America can not impose its values of “openness” and “freedom” on other cultures. Anybody who knows me knows I am rarely at the defense of my own country. However there is something that all people in the world just need to get over. If your cultural values are such that they do damage to you and or others, your cultural values do not deserve respect, they deserve respite. Culture is a beautiful thing, unless it is self defeating. Keeping your people in the dark is self defeating and deserves contempt not only in Turkey, China, and North Korea, but also in the United States.
YouTube aka Google is the largest information broker on the planet and they are showing a disturbing willingness to bow down to some of the most brutal governments in the world simply to make a buck. Their explianation for this is page right out of Neo Conservative handbooks. “Open markets will produce open societies.? It’s nothing more than a sad attempt at justifying making a deal with the devil. Perhaps YouTube should say to Turkey, we will not let you access our site unless you repeal the law which calls for the jailing of any person who speaks ill of Turkey. If Turkey wants to censor information then it may do so, but it may not eat the fruits of the tree of knowledge.