These rank-and-file Republicans are done with President Donald Trump’s refusal to accept defeat in the 2020 election.
In a series of videos released on YouTube by the Republican Voters Against Trump group on Wednesday, anti-Trump Republicans from across the country urge the outgoing president to stop spreading falsehoods about mass voter fraud and to concede his election loss to President-elect Joe Biden.
Many of the disaffected GOPers say the coronavirus pandemic shows it’s imperative that Trump cooperate in a smooth transition to the Biden administration ― and they called out prominent Republicans for failing to stand up to Trump’s poor-loser defiance.
Read more at: Rank-And-File Republicans Send Unequivocal Message To Donald Trump, GOP Enablers
Showing posts with label YouTube. Show all posts
Showing posts with label YouTube. Show all posts
11/19/20
8/24/15
Social Media: YouTube's Battle Against ISIS - by Jaweed Kaleem
On a Thursday night late last fall, after leaving the Manhattan
office where he works as a digital products specialist, Aman Ali -- a
well-known comedian in American Muslim circles -- received an unusual
email from YouTube.
“We need you,” read the note, which invited Ali to the company’s sprawling, 41,000-square-foot production facility in Los Angeles and promised a free flight and two nights in a hotel. “Muslim community leaders [are] struggling to have their voices heard against the overwhelming extremist and bigoted content currently surfacing the web.”
The words “Islamic State” appeared nowhere in the note asking Muslims like Ali to “change the discourse,” but the message was clear. The terrorist organization's vast media arm, with its slick recruitment videos, was winning the propaganda war. Muslims needed to figure out a way to fight back and “get your voices heard.”
\YouTube, facing pressure after unwittingly hosting execution clips before the company could realize and take them down, was offering its helping hand.
Nearly two months later, on a Saturday in January, about 70 Muslims arrived at a closed-door meeting at YouTube’s studios. They comprised a who’s-who of imams, scholars, activists, Muslim vloggers and entertainers from across the U.S. Many had witnessed extremism first-hand, such as imam Suhaib Webb, who was the face of the Boston Muslim community in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings. For nine hours, experts, many of them Muslims, briefed participants and brainstormed how to combat online extremism.
Imams were paired with entertainers; scholars were seated with a few of YouTube’s non-Muslim power users, who peppered the crowd and gave tips on how they had built up millions of subscribers with pop culture commentary. Mimicking a tech startup camp, attendees broke into small groups to debate what technologies and strategies worked best.
YouTube's Battle Against ISIS
“We need you,” read the note, which invited Ali to the company’s sprawling, 41,000-square-foot production facility in Los Angeles and promised a free flight and two nights in a hotel. “Muslim community leaders [are] struggling to have their voices heard against the overwhelming extremist and bigoted content currently surfacing the web.”
The words “Islamic State” appeared nowhere in the note asking Muslims like Ali to “change the discourse,” but the message was clear. The terrorist organization's vast media arm, with its slick recruitment videos, was winning the propaganda war. Muslims needed to figure out a way to fight back and “get your voices heard.”
\YouTube, facing pressure after unwittingly hosting execution clips before the company could realize and take them down, was offering its helping hand.
Nearly two months later, on a Saturday in January, about 70 Muslims arrived at a closed-door meeting at YouTube’s studios. They comprised a who’s-who of imams, scholars, activists, Muslim vloggers and entertainers from across the U.S. Many had witnessed extremism first-hand, such as imam Suhaib Webb, who was the face of the Boston Muslim community in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings. For nine hours, experts, many of them Muslims, briefed participants and brainstormed how to combat online extremism.
Imams were paired with entertainers; scholars were seated with a few of YouTube’s non-Muslim power users, who peppered the crowd and gave tips on how they had built up millions of subscribers with pop culture commentary. Mimicking a tech startup camp, attendees broke into small groups to debate what technologies and strategies worked best.
YouTube's Battle Against ISIS
11/24/14
The Netherlands: Dutch jihadi bride: 'Is she a victim or a suspect?' - by Harriet Alexander, and Anna Mees
She was a blonde-haired, blue eyed Catholic girl whose family was a pillar of
the Dutch
town of Maastricht. He was a smiling, bicycle-riding Dutch former soldier -
a man considered such an asset to his country he was encouraged to try out
for their elite special forces.
And yet the marriage of Sterlina Petalo and Omar Yilmaz was, for their families, anything but a cause for celebration.
Yilmaz, 26, was one of the most high-profile Europeans to become a jihadi, travelling to Syria to live in the Islamic State and fight on behalf of the extremists. He gloried in the teenage fantasy of war - posting a series of Instagram photos of himself pouting at the camera on a motorbike, amid bombed-out buildings in his combat fatigues, AK47 slung nonchalantly over his shoulder. Miss Petalo was a recent convert to Islam, who fell in love with Yilmaz after seeing him on television, picturing him as a Robin Hood figure.
Last week their story took a remarkable twist when it was revealed that Miss Petalo had in fact returned to her hometown - after her mother travelled to the Turkish-Syrian border to bring the 19-year-old home from the jihadist-held city of Raqqa.
“Sometimes you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do,” said her mother, Monique Verbert. “She rang me and said 'Take me home.’ But she could not leave Raqqa without help.”
The pair arrived back in the Netherlands on Wednesday, said Annemarie Kemp, a spokeswoman for the public prosecutor’s office. Clad in a niqqab, with only her eyes showing, the teenager - who has changed her name to Aicha - was photographed being driven through the town on her way to custody.
“Upon her arrival, Aicha was detained at once on suspicion of crimes threatening state security,” said Ms Kemp.
Miss Petalo is being held in a police cell - the prosecutor, Roger Bos, ruled on Friday that she should be detained for questioning for three more days. Mrs Verbert, 49, an administrator for BP, argued that her daughter’s flight to Syria was little more than teenage infatuation. Today Monday November 24 the court will decide whether to press charges.
Note EU-Digest: Every civilized human being should condemn the violence and terror IS is using to instill fear and terror in the areas where they operate. In that same breath one should also condemn social media and the International Press for publicizing these horrific scenes of barbarism, including the decapitation of body parts. This is pure commercially based sensationalism, which can only lead to popularizing these horrific acts in the minds of susceptible young people - case in point Ms Petalo who acted upon her teenage fantasy of a "glorified" war and followed this "insanely obsessed man" into certain disaster.
Kudos to her mother for taking the proper action to bring her daughter back to reality and safety.
Read more: Dutch jihadi bride: 'Is she a victim or a suspect?' - Telegraph
And yet the marriage of Sterlina Petalo and Omar Yilmaz was, for their families, anything but a cause for celebration.
Yilmaz, 26, was one of the most high-profile Europeans to become a jihadi, travelling to Syria to live in the Islamic State and fight on behalf of the extremists. He gloried in the teenage fantasy of war - posting a series of Instagram photos of himself pouting at the camera on a motorbike, amid bombed-out buildings in his combat fatigues, AK47 slung nonchalantly over his shoulder. Miss Petalo was a recent convert to Islam, who fell in love with Yilmaz after seeing him on television, picturing him as a Robin Hood figure.
Last week their story took a remarkable twist when it was revealed that Miss Petalo had in fact returned to her hometown - after her mother travelled to the Turkish-Syrian border to bring the 19-year-old home from the jihadist-held city of Raqqa.
“Sometimes you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do,” said her mother, Monique Verbert. “She rang me and said 'Take me home.’ But she could not leave Raqqa without help.”
The pair arrived back in the Netherlands on Wednesday, said Annemarie Kemp, a spokeswoman for the public prosecutor’s office. Clad in a niqqab, with only her eyes showing, the teenager - who has changed her name to Aicha - was photographed being driven through the town on her way to custody.
“Upon her arrival, Aicha was detained at once on suspicion of crimes threatening state security,” said Ms Kemp.
Miss Petalo is being held in a police cell - the prosecutor, Roger Bos, ruled on Friday that she should be detained for questioning for three more days. Mrs Verbert, 49, an administrator for BP, argued that her daughter’s flight to Syria was little more than teenage infatuation. Today Monday November 24 the court will decide whether to press charges.
Note EU-Digest: Every civilized human being should condemn the violence and terror IS is using to instill fear and terror in the areas where they operate. In that same breath one should also condemn social media and the International Press for publicizing these horrific scenes of barbarism, including the decapitation of body parts. This is pure commercially based sensationalism, which can only lead to popularizing these horrific acts in the minds of susceptible young people - case in point Ms Petalo who acted upon her teenage fantasy of a "glorified" war and followed this "insanely obsessed man" into certain disaster.
Kudos to her mother for taking the proper action to bring her daughter back to reality and safety.
Read more: Dutch jihadi bride: 'Is she a victim or a suspect?' - Telegraph
4/8/14
Turkey - Democracy: YouTube strikes back at Turkey with one of the world's scariest weapons -- by Kia Kokalitcheva
Turkey has been making a lot of headlines lately for its prime
minister’s negative feelings toward social media. And social media is
striking back.
YouTube has just filed a complaint to the Turkish Constitutional Court against the current ban and Gönenç Gürkaynak is representing the company, according to a report from Hürriyet Daily News.
Gürkaynak represented Twitter during the company’s talks with the Turkish government following its ban.
On March 27, Turkey’s Telecommunications Authority (TIB) banned the video-sharing service without a court order after recordings of an important security meeting regarding Syria were leaked through YouTube.
The ban was no surprise, as Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, threatened to ban the service as early as March 7, proclaiming, “We will not leave this nation at the mercy of YouTube and Facebook.”
One week prior to YouTube’s ban, the prime minister shut off access to Twitter. Twitter’s ban was subsequently declared unconstitutional and a violation of Article 26′s freedom of speech protection by Turkey’s Constitutional Court. YouTube is likely seeking a ban lift on similar grounds.
Gürkaynak has also filed a lawsuit to the Ankara 4th Administrative Court, demanding a stay of execution and cancellation of the ban, according to Hürriyet.
He is also appealing a local court’s decision to re-instate the ban after it was lifted on April 5. The local court had claimed the ban would have to stay in place until YouTube removes the “criminal content.”
The video-sharing giant has been blocked in Turkey in the past, even as early as 2007. Along with the recent ban on Twitter, Turkey has also temporarily blocked Facebook in 2013.
Read more: YouTube strikes back at Turkey with one of the world's scariest weapons -- lawyers | VentureBeat | Business | by Kia Kokalitcheva
YouTube has just filed a complaint to the Turkish Constitutional Court against the current ban and Gönenç Gürkaynak is representing the company, according to a report from Hürriyet Daily News.
Gürkaynak represented Twitter during the company’s talks with the Turkish government following its ban.
On March 27, Turkey’s Telecommunications Authority (TIB) banned the video-sharing service without a court order after recordings of an important security meeting regarding Syria were leaked through YouTube.
The ban was no surprise, as Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, threatened to ban the service as early as March 7, proclaiming, “We will not leave this nation at the mercy of YouTube and Facebook.”
One week prior to YouTube’s ban, the prime minister shut off access to Twitter. Twitter’s ban was subsequently declared unconstitutional and a violation of Article 26′s freedom of speech protection by Turkey’s Constitutional Court. YouTube is likely seeking a ban lift on similar grounds.
Gürkaynak has also filed a lawsuit to the Ankara 4th Administrative Court, demanding a stay of execution and cancellation of the ban, according to Hürriyet.
He is also appealing a local court’s decision to re-instate the ban after it was lifted on April 5. The local court had claimed the ban would have to stay in place until YouTube removes the “criminal content.”
The video-sharing giant has been blocked in Turkey in the past, even as early as 2007. Along with the recent ban on Twitter, Turkey has also temporarily blocked Facebook in 2013.
Read more: YouTube strikes back at Turkey with one of the world's scariest weapons -- lawyers | VentureBeat | Business | by Kia Kokalitcheva
3/31/14
EU-Turkish Relations: Erdogan victory puts icy Turkey-EU relations in deep freeze - by Luke Baker
Sunday's
resounding victory by the ruling AK Party in Turkey's local elections,
undiminished by what some call an authoritarian turn by Prime Minister
Tayyip Erdogan, is likely to put already cool relations between Ankara
and Brussels in the chiller.
After months of revelations of high-level corruption and the furore caused by the government's blocking of Twitter and YouTube, Turkey finds itself at sharp odds with the European Union, which it has been negotiating to join since 1999.
Too much has been invested in the process to call talks off - trade, energy and infrastructure links make it as hard to break off as to push ahead. But the EU is very unlikely to nudge Ankara's accession hopes along until Erdogan shows he is prepared to protect civil liberties, justice and the rule of law - and govern like a mainstream European prime minister.
As if to underline that point, the European Commission delivered a terse statement within hours of final results showing AKP won 46 percent of the nationwide vote, a significantly higher tally than many expected.
"Following the overall worrying developments which have taken place over the past three months, Turkey ... now urgently needs to re-engage fully in reforms in line with European standards," a Commission spokeswoman said.
"It also needs to reach out to all citizens, including those which are not part of the majority vote, in order to build the strongest possible engagement on reforms needed to make progress on EU accession."
There is scant evidence Erdogan is listening, or feels he needs to. As leader of a country of nearly 75 million people which acts as an energy and trade hub and an anchor in an often unstable region, he sees Turkey as holding an upper hand.
His attitude to EU membership since coming to power has been summed up as "Europe needs Turkey more than we need them". That self-confidence will only have been reinforced by Sunday's results, which give him a powerful
mandate.
"He'll be feeling 500 feet tall today, which makes him ruthless and able to do anything," said Amanda Paul, a Turkey expert at the European Policy Centre, a Brussels think-tank.
"It's a lot of power in the hands of a man who has become increasingly unpredictable and authoritarian," she said, suggesting it would have an impact on EU relations.
Read more: Erdogan victory puts icy Turkey-EU relations in deep freeze | Reuters
After months of revelations of high-level corruption and the furore caused by the government's blocking of Twitter and YouTube, Turkey finds itself at sharp odds with the European Union, which it has been negotiating to join since 1999.
Too much has been invested in the process to call talks off - trade, energy and infrastructure links make it as hard to break off as to push ahead. But the EU is very unlikely to nudge Ankara's accession hopes along until Erdogan shows he is prepared to protect civil liberties, justice and the rule of law - and govern like a mainstream European prime minister.
As if to underline that point, the European Commission delivered a terse statement within hours of final results showing AKP won 46 percent of the nationwide vote, a significantly higher tally than many expected.
"Following the overall worrying developments which have taken place over the past three months, Turkey ... now urgently needs to re-engage fully in reforms in line with European standards," a Commission spokeswoman said.
"It also needs to reach out to all citizens, including those which are not part of the majority vote, in order to build the strongest possible engagement on reforms needed to make progress on EU accession."
There is scant evidence Erdogan is listening, or feels he needs to. As leader of a country of nearly 75 million people which acts as an energy and trade hub and an anchor in an often unstable region, he sees Turkey as holding an upper hand.
His attitude to EU membership since coming to power has been summed up as "Europe needs Turkey more than we need them". That self-confidence will only have been reinforced by Sunday's results, which give him a powerful
mandate."He'll be feeling 500 feet tall today, which makes him ruthless and able to do anything," said Amanda Paul, a Turkey expert at the European Policy Centre, a Brussels think-tank.
"It's a lot of power in the hands of a man who has become increasingly unpredictable and authoritarian," she said, suggesting it would have an impact on EU relations.
Read more: Erdogan victory puts icy Turkey-EU relations in deep freeze | Reuters
3/29/14
Turkey: AKP faces tough test in Turkey's local polls - by Osman Kaytazoglu
Turkey is going to the polls in local elections on March 30. The vote
comes amid allegations of government corruption and bribery, debates
about a so-called "parallel state", and with government moves to block
Twitter and YouTube heavily criticized.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party [AKP] have come out of each general election since the party was first elected to power in 2002 with more votes than before, securing nearly 50 percent of the vote in 2011 general elections.
But this election may represent the AKP’s biggest challenge to date, and is being described as a litmus test for upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections. The main parties fielding candidates are Erdogan’s AKP, the main opposition party Republican People’s Party (CHP), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the pro-Kurdish Justice and Development Party (BDP).
The local elections first garnered attention with anti-government Gezi Park protests in June 2013, when thousands of people descended on a park in central Istanbul against the municipality’s gentrification plans.
The elections have been dominated by a new scandal that began on December 17 last year, when three AKP cabinet ministers’ children were arrested on corruption charges, and several government figures were implicated in graft probes.
Turkey’s main opposition party, the Republic People’s Party (CHP), has tried to make sure the graft probe remains at the centre of the election process. "The state’s conscience woke up on December 17," CHP leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, said, referring to when the first arrests were made.
Erdogan blamed rival Fethullah Gulen, the US-based head of the Gulen movement, for the recent controversies, and their feud has dominated the headlines. Erdogan described the Gulen movement as "a threat to national security" and called the Gulen movement "a terrorist organisation".
Recent opinion polls show that people are confused about the public AKP-Gulen feud. While 60 percent of Turkish people believe the corruption allegations are true, 57 percent also think that the graft probe is a coup attempt targeting Erdogan.
Ahead of the polls, various audio recordings have also leaked, with the latest reportedly showing top government and security officials discussing launching military operations into Syria. The Turkish government banned Twitter and YouTube over these leaks.
Read more: AKP faces tough test in Turkey's local polls - Europe - Al Jazeera English
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party [AKP] have come out of each general election since the party was first elected to power in 2002 with more votes than before, securing nearly 50 percent of the vote in 2011 general elections.
But this election may represent the AKP’s biggest challenge to date, and is being described as a litmus test for upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections. The main parties fielding candidates are Erdogan’s AKP, the main opposition party Republican People’s Party (CHP), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the pro-Kurdish Justice and Development Party (BDP).
The local elections first garnered attention with anti-government Gezi Park protests in June 2013, when thousands of people descended on a park in central Istanbul against the municipality’s gentrification plans.
The elections have been dominated by a new scandal that began on December 17 last year, when three AKP cabinet ministers’ children were arrested on corruption charges, and several government figures were implicated in graft probes.
Turkey’s main opposition party, the Republic People’s Party (CHP), has tried to make sure the graft probe remains at the centre of the election process. "The state’s conscience woke up on December 17," CHP leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, said, referring to when the first arrests were made.
Erdogan blamed rival Fethullah Gulen, the US-based head of the Gulen movement, for the recent controversies, and their feud has dominated the headlines. Erdogan described the Gulen movement as "a threat to national security" and called the Gulen movement "a terrorist organisation".
Recent opinion polls show that people are confused about the public AKP-Gulen feud. While 60 percent of Turkish people believe the corruption allegations are true, 57 percent also think that the graft probe is a coup attempt targeting Erdogan.
Ahead of the polls, various audio recordings have also leaked, with the latest reportedly showing top government and security officials discussing launching military operations into Syria. The Turkish government banned Twitter and YouTube over these leaks.
Read more: AKP faces tough test in Turkey's local polls - Europe - Al Jazeera English
3/28/14
Turkey: Move to block YouTube ahead of elections points to growing censorship
The Turkish authorities’ move today to block access to YouTube on the eve of Sunday’s elections, and not long after they restricted access to Twitter, smacks of a wider pre-meditated crackdown on freedom of expression, Amnesty International said.
According to media reports, Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs cited national security concerns when it sought an administrative order to block the video-sharing platform – allegedly to prevent further circulation of a taped recording of discussions between senior Turkish officials on Syria.
“The Turkish government appears to be itching for pretexts to close down websites because of their capacity to mobilize dissenting opinion and broadcast embarrassing material,” said Andrew Gardner, Amnesty International's researcher on Turkey.
“Coming just days before Turkey goes to the polls and in the wake of Prime Minister Erdoðan’s strident criticism of YouTube, this is clearly nothing more than a crude attempt at government censorship that will only generate deeper distrust and frustration.
“Even if the Turkish authorities have legitimate concerns about some of the content that might appear, it is completely disproportionate to enforce a blanket YouTube ban in the entire country. Access to YouTube must be restored immediately and the authorities must stop blocking sites that expose abuses and provide a platform for dissenting views.”
Read more: Turkey: Move to block YouTube ahead of elections points to growing censorship | Amnesty International
According to media reports, Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs cited national security concerns when it sought an administrative order to block the video-sharing platform – allegedly to prevent further circulation of a taped recording of discussions between senior Turkish officials on Syria.
“The Turkish government appears to be itching for pretexts to close down websites because of their capacity to mobilize dissenting opinion and broadcast embarrassing material,” said Andrew Gardner, Amnesty International's researcher on Turkey.
“Coming just days before Turkey goes to the polls and in the wake of Prime Minister Erdoðan’s strident criticism of YouTube, this is clearly nothing more than a crude attempt at government censorship that will only generate deeper distrust and frustration.
“Even if the Turkish authorities have legitimate concerns about some of the content that might appear, it is completely disproportionate to enforce a blanket YouTube ban in the entire country. Access to YouTube must be restored immediately and the authorities must stop blocking sites that expose abuses and provide a platform for dissenting views.”
Read more: Turkey: Move to block YouTube ahead of elections points to growing censorship | Amnesty International
12/10/12
Iran launches Islamic YouTube rival 'Mehr'
The Iranian government has launched a video sharing site in full adherence with its strict interpretation of Islam as an alternative to YouTube.
Mehr, which means affection or kindness in Farsi, is run by state broadcaster IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting).
YouTube has been banned in Iran since 2009, but many Iranians still access the Google-owned website by bypassing internet filters.
Iran already has a popular video website, Aparat, run by the company behind Farsi-language social network Cloob, but Mehr is the first state-backed incursion into YouTube territory in the country.
"From now on, people can upload their short films on the website and access (IRIB) produced material," said IRIB deputy chief Lotfollah Siahkali yesterday.
Poor download speeds have affected the new service, and as of this afternoon Mehr was not functioning despite users' repeated attempts to access it.
Read more: Iran launches Islamic YouTube rival 'Mehr' - Technology, Business - Independent.ie
Mehr, which means affection or kindness in Farsi, is run by state broadcaster IRIB (Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting).
YouTube has been banned in Iran since 2009, but many Iranians still access the Google-owned website by bypassing internet filters.
Iran already has a popular video website, Aparat, run by the company behind Farsi-language social network Cloob, but Mehr is the first state-backed incursion into YouTube territory in the country.
"From now on, people can upload their short films on the website and access (IRIB) produced material," said IRIB deputy chief Lotfollah Siahkali yesterday.
Poor download speeds have affected the new service, and as of this afternoon Mehr was not functioning despite users' repeated attempts to access it.
Read more: Iran launches Islamic YouTube rival 'Mehr' - Technology, Business - Independent.ie
4/21/12
German court rules against Google’s YouTube - Jan Schwartz and Peter Maushagen
Google Inc’s YouTube and similar online music and video services may face a hefty royalties bill in Germany after a Hamburg court ruled in favor of copyright owners in a landmark case on Friday.
The court said the website was responsible for the content its users published and forced it to take down copyrighted clips.
Friday’s ruling comes less than a month after a U.S. appeals court dealt Google a major setback by reviving lawsuits from Viacom Inc, the English Premier League and various other media companies over the use of copyrighted videos on YouTube without permission.
For more: German court rules against Google’s YouTube
The court said the website was responsible for the content its users published and forced it to take down copyrighted clips.
Friday’s ruling comes less than a month after a U.S. appeals court dealt Google a major setback by reviving lawsuits from Viacom Inc, the English Premier League and various other media companies over the use of copyrighted videos on YouTube without permission.
For more: German court rules against Google’s YouTube
11/2/10
Turkish Court Orders YouTube Closure Days After Service Resumed
A Turkish court ordered that access to Google Inc.’s YouTube website be blocked again, days after the site was reopened following a 30-month ban.
For more: Turkish Court Orders YouTube Closure Days After Service Resumed - BusinessWeek
The court in Ankara ordered the closure because the site posted videos showing former opposition leader Deniz Baykal, the state-owned Anatolia news agency reported. Baykal quit as leader of the Republican People’s Party in May after a video on the internet showed him in a bedroom with a female lawmaker.
The court instructed Turkey’s telecommunications regulator to ask YouTube to remove the video, and block access to the site if it failed to comply, Anatolia said. YouTube was still accessible from Turkey as of 9 p.m. local time today.
For more: Turkish Court Orders YouTube Closure Days After Service Resumed - BusinessWeek
7/10/07
Radio Netherlands: Steamy sexy video gets Brussels hot under the collar, most Europeans turned on, and Polish Government upset - by Vanessa Mock
For the complete report from Radio Netherlands click on this link
Steamy sexy video gets Brussels hot under the collar, most Europeans turned on, and Polish Government upset - by Vanessa Mock
Cries of ecstasy and clothes torn off in a fit of passion are not what you would normally expect to come out of the European Commission. But its steamy clip of famous sex scenes has scored a surprise hit on YouTube - as well as grunts of displeasure from Polish politicians.The 40-second film is a sequence of love scenes in European cinema taken from films such as Breaking the Waves and Amelie. It shows couples getting it on in toilets, in kitchens and more traditionally, in the bedroom, with a heady soundtrack that crescendos into all-out screams of pleasure."Since we put it on YouTube in February, we've had over 270,000 visitors and top ratings," Commission spokesman Martin Selmayr beams.
Online punters might be lapping it up, but not the more conservative elements in Polish politics. Polish members of the European Parliament, including Maciej Giertych and Marcin Libicki, are reportedly "offended" by a short gay sex sequence, which they say undermines Catholic values.
Regardless of the criticism, it is clear that this is one of the few occasions when the EU Commission has managed to turn Europeans on - not off.
7/3/07
YouTube/EUTube/EU-Digest: Hot EU video clip promotes European Films
For the video clip from YouTube click on this link
Hot EU video clip promotes European Films
"It can't get any better says YouTube and some European politicians are even suggesting that the European Commission dedicate this very popular YouTube video clip to the Polish twins - Lech and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, following their EU Summit performance.
Half of the European films distributed around the world are shown with the support of the European Commission's MEDIA group. The Commission's Media group also supports the distribution of 9 out of every 10 feature films in Europe that are distributed outside their originating country. Some 2.5 million cinema-lovers also watch over 15,000 European screenings in more than 100 festivals funded by MEDIA. Every year 300 new European film projects are supported by MEDIA."
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