No, You Can't YouTube Egyptian Torture Videos

Wael Abbas, the Egyptian blogger who has been leaking video footage of police brutality and torture in Egypt through his website, MisrDigital, over the past year, has had his YouTube account suspended. One of Abbas's videos showed a bus driver being sodomized by two officers in a Cairo police station last year. Earlier this month, those officers were convicted of torture and sentenced to three years in prison. "This is by far the biggest blow to the anti-torture movement in Egypt," Abbas said, according to Amira Al Hussaini at Global Voices.

News wires began reporting YouTube's suspension of Abbas's account on Tuesday, and CNN just aired a clip about it, mostly rehashing a segment on Abbas aired a few weeks ago for an "Inside the Middle East" special on blogging. Abbas has been getting more press attention in the past few months, since he won an international journalism prize for his online reporting. After more than a year of leaking videos and posting his own photos of pro-democracy rallies going back to the huge May 2006 protests in Cairo against election fraud, the international press has started to take notice.

Here are two fairly recent interviews, one with Aljazeera English, the other with CNN.

Abbas is convinced that government launched most of the complaints that compelled YouTube to suspend his account. In the past, intimidation tactics from the government have come in the form of threats against him and his family and attempts to block or shut down his and other opposition websites. "Blogging in the Middle East is harder than in the rest of the world. You'll be followed. You'll see that someone is watching you," Abbas said in an interview last January when I was in Cairo.

The international attention may be a slight buffer, but that does not stop government operatives in Egypt from going on the air and online to try and ruin the credibility of someone like Abbas, whether that means accusing him of converting to Christianity or of being gay. Again, there are the threats to his family. In a piece for Slate written last spring while he was in the States, Abbas worried that "the government's next step will be to send me to jail on charges of espionage and homosexuality. I'm told they will use the fact that I'm spending this month in the United States as part of a Freedom House fellowship program -- and as an intern at Slate -- to back up those charges."

That was in May. Today his YouTube clips are down, and now Yahoo has disabled his email account, according to his most recent post. Many Egyptian bloggers have offered their solidarity, although some see YouTube's decision as content protocol, since many of Abbas's videos are graphic. Hosting videos on different websites, many of them based in Europe, is seen as the immediate solution to YouTube's block, according to the Guardian.

Others see YouTube's move as evident of its parent company Google giving into state pressure -- first from Turkey, which has blocked YouTube for content deemed offensive to Ataturk, and now, possibly, Egypt.

"The bloggers in Egypt are the last independent voice," Abbas wrote last spring. "If we are silenced, no protests will be heard in Egypt, not only now, but for the coming quarter- or even half-century."

Comments

[nefertiti]

Altohone

You are right about Egypt rigged elections and other abuses , but in Saudi arabia (US strongest ally in the region ) there are NO Elections . and there are no other faiths apart from Islam (unlike Evil Iran where jews , zorostrians and christians have freedom of faith) and women are part of the parliament and have the right to drive a car .
Unlike the worst Place on earth , saudi arabia .
4 months ago 2 dozen Saudi reformers got kidnapped while socializing at home , and have been jailed and their families have no idea where to look . the reason ? they have signed a document demanding reforms, transparency , accountability , a clear budget , elections . So far i Have nOT heard the whitehouse condemning it , (usually they are quite good and fast when it comes to syria and iran ) and they have not commented on the recent rape case either .
the close relationship of America and despotic Saudi makes america Lose its credibility. in fact most extremists groups are financed by Saudi i wonder whether it is the plan so America can interfere here and there ?? just wondering .

[nefertiti]

The Egyptian Blogger yesterday was so disappointed and upset that YOUTUBE cancelled his account. he said on CNN , i thought YOutube was with us , supported us so we can expose injustice and the thugs and despots . he was right .

[barkingdog]

Didn't ANY of you get the memo?

Torture is now official U.S. government policy. Since torture is NOT official U.S. government policy, torture is not torture. So anything proclaiming to be torture is NOT torture. Are we all clear so far?

Homosexuality...let's not go there.

As for realitytrumpsbull, are you paying rent here? I mean, trolling is one thing...but when you file for social security...

[Libsrule]

I really think there should be a worldwide boycott of YouTube which is owned by Google which has already proven that it is interested MORE in money than anything else.

It has already helped the Chinese government track down and imprison a protestor.

Now it has helped the Egyptian government cover up torture and murder.

Google needs to held accountable and the best way is to stop using it. The fewer people who use YouTube and Google, the less money they make from advertisers and THAT will get their attention.

I've decided NOT to go to Youtube until they change and I'm using other search engines and I think this should be a worldwide effort.

They have GOT to stop helping dictatorships,and repressive governments all in the name of Money Uber Alles.

Arianna should lead and stop taking ads from them and keep up a top of the page boycott. Or I guess money is more important to her as well?

[altohone]

This info is just one more straw on the camels back.

When will Americans wake up to the fact that our "ally" Egypt does not represent the kind of friends we should have or support.

Americans should not be tolerating military dictatorships that torture just because they hold rigged elections for appearances.

We must recognize that those who seek true American values are being radicalized when the government we back oppresses them. Short-term political gains in the war on terror will create long-term problems if we tolerate humanitarian and rule of law abuses by the dictators and monarchs who claim to be our friends.

[drblack]

I hope Americans send letters of protest to You Tube.
This should be its most important function, exposing the corruption and brutality of governments.
I will write to You Tube and will no longer use it and belittle those who do as enablers of torture and destroyers of freedom.

[dexxjones]

it should be shown on national television. let people see what it looks like. i saw that video and was numb for hours.

[fullorage]

I certainly hope Wael Abbas, the Egyptian blogger can continue to show the torture that goes on every day in Egypt. Routing through Europe is a great way to circumvent this overt censorship.Google's ownership of youtube has ruined a once free flowing form of expression. Their heavy handedness and censorship is on display around the world. In Egypt and China where they actually participated in the exposure of Chinese citizens who dared to speak against the state. Have they also turned over their records to the U.S. government snoops looking for who knows what? Take one guess....Don't google and don't youtube.Don't click on any of their advertisement banners. I hate to hurt any bloggers and websites making money from these ads but steps must be taken to show google who pays their way and who wants to use them for info against the people of the world.

[nefertiti]

The Police officers who abused that egyptian guy got sentenced to prison and seeing the victim smile on AL Jazeera was beautiful . I was happy for him . he was lucky it was caught on film , other people are not so lucky . their words is against Mubarak Dogs

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7078785.stm

[realitytrumpsbull]

Do you ever wonder if people like, deliberately
do stuff just to stir up controversy? What
if we just shut off the TV's and the computers,
would they stop beating the peasants?
Moreover, would there BE peasants if we stopped
sending the people with the billy clubs any
more money? Ya gotta wonder...