What Line to Draw on Beheadings?
So, then, should we think about the role of social media differently than we think about that of traditional news organizations? One approach is to view these entities as essentially public utilities through which information and images flow.
In this view, they should not be arbiters of what is decent enough for public consumption. In the age of the Internet, we are all journalists, and the role of social media is to passively facilitate the transmission of our work-product.
I don't think that's correct and neither, apparently, do YouTube and Twitter. YouTube moved quickly to take down the beheading video, citing "clear policies that prohibit content like gratuitous violence, hate speech and incitement to commit violent acts," as well as to "terminate any account registered by a member of a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization and used in an official capacity to further its interests." Likewise, tweeted Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, "We have been and are actively suspending accounts as we discover them related to this graphic imagery."
No one wants Net super-nannies deciding what content is permissible, but -- as with child pornography -- beheadings are extreme cases. No doubt, as well, there is a tension between technology companies' understandable bristling over the European Union's declared "right to be forgotten" and their assertion of responsibility to police violent content.
Yet the companies acted properly in handling the Foley images. So, too, did the tweeters who embraced the hashtag #ISISMediaBlackout.
Between informative and offensive lies the thinnest of lines. Sadly, Foley's death likely will not be the last time it will have to be drawn.
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Ruth Marcus' email address is ruthmarcus@washpost.com.
Copyright 2014 Washington Post Writers Group
