Introduction
Through our monitoring of jihadi use of YouTube over the past two years,[1]we have determined that YouTube has emerged as one of the leading websites for online jihad. It has replaced - and surpassed - websites administered by the jihadis themselves, which were previously the leaders in online jihadi efforts.
MEMRI has briefed members of the U.S. government and Congress on this issue, and has also met with representatives from Google Inc. to share our findings in identifying videos that incite violence and terrorist acts and to explain the role they play in homegrown terrorism.
During this period, following a substantial amount of negative PR and Congressional pressure, YouTube announced, in November 2010, that it would add a "flagging" system for marking videos that promote terrorism.[2]Previously, all YouTube users had the option of flagging videos as inappropriate; however, the reasons they could give for doing so were limited, including sexual content or copyright infringement but not promotion of terrorism.
To request a full copy of this MEMRI Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor report, send us an email with the report title, number, and date in the subject line, and include your name, title, organization, and official contact info in the body of the email.
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