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Father of slain journalist Alison Parker takes on YouTube over refusal to remove graphic videos
https://www.washingtonpost.com/crime-law/2020/02/20/father-slain-journalist-alison-parker-takes-youtube-over-refusal-remove-graphic-videos/
Chris Hurst, news anchor for WDBJ in Roanoke, before a segment about reporter Alison Parker. Parker and photographer Adam Ward were slain during a live broadcast Aug. 26, 2015, at Smith Mountain Lake, Va. (Timothy C. Wright/For the Washington Post)
By Tom Jackman
Feb. 20, 2020 at 6:00 a.m. EST
It has been more than four years since journalist Alison Parker, doing a live television interview in southern Virginia, was killed when a former colleague walked up and shot her and videographer Adam Ward. Despite repeated requests from her father and others, videos of the slaying remain on YouTube, as do countless other graphic videos that show people dying or that promote various outlandish hoaxes.
Andy Parker has never watched the videos of his daughter’s death, including GoPro footage recorded and posted by the shooter. But he and others have notified YouTube and Google, YouTube’s owner, that the graphic videos continue to exist on the dominant worldwide video platform. “We’re flagging the stuff,” Parker said. “Nothing’s coming down. This is crazy. I cannot tolerate them profiting from my daughter’s murder, and that’s exactly what they do.”
There is no specific law prohibiting YouTube from hosting disturbing videos. So Parker filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, arguing that YouTube violates its own terms of service by hosting content it claims is prohibited, and urging the FTC to “end the company’s blatant, unrepentant consumer deception.” The complaint, drafted by the Civil Rights Clinic of the Georgetown University Law Center, notes: “Videos of Alison’s murder are just a drop in the bucket. There are countless other videos on YouTube depicting individuals’ moments of death, advancing hoaxes and inciting harassment of the families of murder victims, or otherwise violating YouTube’s Terms of Service.”
YouTube said in a statement that it had removed thousands of copies of the video of Parker’s shooting since 2015.
</snip>
Chris Hurst, news anchor for WDBJ in Roanoke, before a segment about reporter Alison Parker. Parker and photographer Adam Ward were slain during a live broadcast Aug. 26, 2015, at Smith Mountain Lake, Va. (Timothy C. Wright/For the Washington Post)
By Tom Jackman
Feb. 20, 2020 at 6:00 a.m. EST
It has been more than four years since journalist Alison Parker, doing a live television interview in southern Virginia, was killed when a former colleague walked up and shot her and videographer Adam Ward. Despite repeated requests from her father and others, videos of the slaying remain on YouTube, as do countless other graphic videos that show people dying or that promote various outlandish hoaxes.
Andy Parker has never watched the videos of his daughter’s death, including GoPro footage recorded and posted by the shooter. But he and others have notified YouTube and Google, YouTube’s owner, that the graphic videos continue to exist on the dominant worldwide video platform. “We’re flagging the stuff,” Parker said. “Nothing’s coming down. This is crazy. I cannot tolerate them profiting from my daughter’s murder, and that’s exactly what they do.”
There is no specific law prohibiting YouTube from hosting disturbing videos. So Parker filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, arguing that YouTube violates its own terms of service by hosting content it claims is prohibited, and urging the FTC to “end the company’s blatant, unrepentant consumer deception.” The complaint, drafted by the Civil Rights Clinic of the Georgetown University Law Center, notes: “Videos of Alison’s murder are just a drop in the bucket. There are countless other videos on YouTube depicting individuals’ moments of death, advancing hoaxes and inciting harassment of the families of murder victims, or otherwise violating YouTube’s Terms of Service.”
YouTube said in a statement that it had removed thousands of copies of the video of Parker’s shooting since 2015.
</snip>
