YouTube under fire in Germany

Source:  Jewish Telegraph Agency
Published: 08/28/2007

The Central Council of Jews in Germany has joined the call to punish YouTube for failing to remove hate material from its Web site.

YouTube, the online video sharing portal, has been accused of spreading neo-Nazi material. According to a report in the ARD television magazine, anti-Jewish propaganda from the Third Reich and music by the banned neo-Nazi group Landser can be viewed unhindered on YouTube.

Such material is illegal in Germany. The report said some of the material had been online for several months. The federal Ministry of the Interior has recommended filing charges.

German officials reportedly have warned YouTube more than 100 times to remove the material but without a response.

The vice president of the German Jewish council, Salomon Korn, has asked that Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Justice Ministry intervene to stop the online publication of offending video clips.

YouTube, which is owned by Google, is based in California and thus beyond Germany's legal reach. But German officials could come down harder on Web companies with operations in Germany.

YouTube criticized over Neo-Nazi clips

Source:  Reuters
Mon Aug 27, 2007 8:41PM BST

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Video-sharing Web site YouTube has met with harsh criticism in Germany for hosting clips that incite racial hatred, according to a news report due to be broadcast on German public TV late on Monday.

The videos hosted on YouTube include clips of a 1940 anti-Semitic propaganda film "Jud Suess" and two music videos of outlawed German far-right rock band Landser, which show footage from World War II depicting Nazi military operations.

Report Mainz, which is due to air the program, said in a statement that Social Democrat (SPD) parliamentarian Dieter Wiefelspuetz said airing the clips on YouTube in Germany was scandalous. Report Mainz quoted him as saying: "Publishing these films amounts to aiding and abetting incitement of the people."

Report Mainz also said that Germany's Central Council of Jews Vice President Salomon Korn was considering pressing charges against Google Germany.

According to the statement from Report Mainz, German youth protection body Jugendschutz.net has complained to Google Germany more than 100 times and asked Google, which bought YouTube last year, to remove the clips.

Some of the material has been on the site for almost a year.

Google Germany was not immediately available for comment.

More than 60 years after the Holocaust, Germany is grappling with a rise in support for Nazi ideas. Neo-Nazi violence in Germany has reached its highest level since reunification in 1990.

(Reporting by Nicola Leske)