SAUDI ARABIA

YouTube promoting terrorism: Prosecutor

March 05, 2018

Saudi Gazette report

DAMMAM
– Saudi Public Prosecutor has accused YouTube of playing a big role in recruiting terrorists by spreading videos of Daesh (the so-called IS) leaders that encourage young men and women to join the terror group.

The prosecutor made his point during a trial of a 10-member terror group accused of opening fire at security patrols on the outskirts of Riyadh three years ago.

YouTube is considered the third most popular social media networking site in the world, according to Alexa ranking. Its toolbar collects data on Internet browsing behavior and transmits them to the Alexa website, where they are stored and analyzed.

Founded as an independent company in 1996, Alexa was acquired by Amazon in 1999. Alexa website is the basis for the company's web traffic reporting. According to its website, Alexa provides web traffic data, global rankings, and other information on 30 million websites. As of 2015, its website has been visited by over 6.5 million people monthly.

A special criminal court in Riyadh started trial of eight Saudi and two Yemeni terror suspects last week. The militants received instructions from Daesh leaders through a site on the YouTube.

“This is the reason the Saudi Public Prosecutor accused the famous social media networking site of promoting terrorist ideology, recruiting militants and giving them electronic instructions,” a source said while speaking to Al-Madina Arabic daily.

Dr. Abdul Raziq Al-Marjan, a member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, said: “This shows that YouTube has not yet implemented the UN Strategy to Combat Terrorism.”

He said YouTube has a track record of promoting terrorism. It published the speech of Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi two months ago and the company later closed the website that published the speech. About 500 people listened to that speech within 4 hours.

“This means the closed website was not influential,” Al-Marjan pointed out.

YouTube later closed the main website where 42,000 people viewed the speech within 18 hours, although the company was given instructions to close the site and remove the speech, he pointed out.


March 05, 2018
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