Internet Censorship

[Sirc]

I just read a story about a car accident that involved a young girl. She hit a concrete bridge pillar at 100 mph in a Porsche. Multiple photos of the accident scene were "leaked" to the internet, and now her parents are attempting to have the pictures removed...from the internet.

I'm not going to provide any links - not even to the news story. That's not the point of my post.

It brings up a question though. As tragic as the accident was, and as horrific and gory as the photos were, should the internet be somehow held accountable for these images spreading? Should there be measures put into place that allow anything to be controlled on the internet?

No. The internet is a completely free exchange of information - that's the way it was designed to be. Much more good than bad has come from this free exchange, despite some countries (China for example) trying to control it.

It comes down to this. Nothing is being thrown in your face. You get to choose which content you want to see, and which you don't. If you are concerned about what your children are seeing then monitor them - that's your job - not the government's job.

The news story said that the photos were easily found. And the news website I read this on even posted one of the pictures of the wreckage, which I thought was in bad taste. This was at the same time the announcer was saying how horrible is was that this happened and that he guessed "anything goes" on the internet. Fricken sleaze-bag journalism at it's finest.

And what little prick got hold of these pictures in the first place and released them? The prick cops that took the accident scene photos, that's who.

[JIMINATOR]

wow, pretty horrific photos. can anything be censored? no. that just creates publicity that generates curiosity that generates demand that generates a supply. I think the issue here is that someone has created a website with the accident victims name and is using it to post the photos. Others are using the same photos and pages with the victims name to generate internet traffic. It is understandable that the family would not want their daughter to be remembered in that fashion.

http://www.google.com/trends

the above url is not to the crash site, it is just to view what the hot searches are in google at any given time. A lot of sites track the trends, so once a trend develops they will generate a page to 'profiteer' on the trend. Yesterday the entire top 10 were based on an oprah kfc free meal deal. Today there must have been news that caused the searches for the photos to explode.

anways net result is I don't think that photos can be removed, however I think that they should be able to shut down websites and webpages that exploit the victims name.

[FUS1ON]

I guess I sit on the other side of the fence and would respect the wishes of the family. I think it's classless to post them and Jim you posting that or helping others to find them ranks right up there with the rest of them.

I'm going to leave it to show others how some people think.

[JIMINATOR]

I don't think you get what I am saying. information today is like a living thing. it is why china and ultimately the middle east will fail, because they cannot block the flow of information.

google trends that is essentially the 'heartbeat' of the information age, it reflects what people are currently interested in. people by nature have a morbid curiosity. curiosity I can understand. profiteering on tragedy I cannot understand and the websites that do that should be shut down.

But then that is really the basis of all our news media, people that profiteer on tragedy. (and if they have nothing to report they take something minor and make it into a big deal, repetition gives it importance).

Oh, and just as sirc said, stories about this are including some of the non-graphic images. profiteering.

[OUTLAWS CHICO]

I appreciate both sides of the fence Shogun has a more sensitive side of the fence and Jiminater has the respect to not put a direct link to the tragedy.Unfortunately the reasoning of the more respective opinions fall on deaf ears .The sleaze photos were more than likely taken by poparatzi scummmmmmmmmmmmmm bags. Those people would sell photos of the own family to make a buck. Shogun you google alot and that is one of the fastest ways to look up such tragedies.So in a round about way your googleing helps people to have their solutions to be able to veiw this kind of trash. You know kind like, if the guy hadn't sold the gun to the sniper then Kennedy would be still alive = NOT.

[Sirc]

Since the pictures were released unlawfully, I wonder if the news sites that posted any of them are equally liable for damages.

The worst part is that if the lawsuit had been done in private under a gag order then it wouldn't have made the news at all, and 10 million more people than usual wouldn't have even known about the pictures. The pics would have just been another addition to the gore websites and quickly forgotten about.

[Sirc]

On the other side of the coin, having the story released may be helpful in preventing the possibility of something similar happening in the future.

I hope you're right. I doubt it though. Stupid people will do stupid things, and that's about as hard to change as having pictures removed from the internet.

[He Is Legend]

theync.com

and you thought the car wreck was bad

warning: VERY graphic

[Nitro]

well arnt there site like rotten.com and such dedicated to pictures and videos like that?

also ogrish, which is now liveleak

[Zed]

theync.com

and you thought the car wreck was bad

warning: VERY graphic

When I first saw this I was so shocked and realized how fukked up this world is.. a while back though

[Suicidal]

[QUOTE=JIMINATOR;867186]
http://www.google.com/trends


This is the funniest thing ever: as it turns out, the most seached things in google are the same as the yahoo! news frontpage. I guess we know who's second to none here (not that there was ever any doubt).

[Sirc]

I would imagine that posting links to gore sites could get you a warning here, or worse. I wouldn't do it if I were you. But that's just me.

[Nitro]

When I first saw this I was so shocked and realized how fukked up this world is.. a while back though

that's simply untrue. if you always focus on the negative, then yes, the world will look ****ed up. truth is, there is much much more positive things happening in the world. the media is extremely biases towards showing all that is not well in the world, for what purpose? it seems sadistic, really for them to do it, but im sure they have some sort of twisted reason.

[He Is Legend]

I would imagine that posting links to gore sites could get you a warning here, or worse. I wouldn't do it if I were you. But that's just me.

Was just relating to the topic, remove it if you want, I don't care. Just showing people how shitty the world can be.

[JIMINATOR]

can't say I understood shoguns reaction, google trends is not a link to anything. if you look at it today all the searches are different from yesterday, the accident is no longer in the top. I suppose it is just a way to be aware of how 'news' generates 'interest' which creates a demand for more news.

[FUS1ON]

Go look at someone you really love, now image them mangled/dismembered/etc .... out on the street somewhere. If you really respect and love them, do you really want them seen and remember like that???

Just because it is someone you don't know should not matter, it is morally wrong and yes, i've been to those sites mentioned because back then I had a morbid curiosity to look. Hopefully you will out grow it just as I have.

[He Is Legend]

Go look at someone you really love, now image them mangled/dismembered/etc .... out on the street somewhere. If you really respect and love them, do you really want them seen and remember like that???

Just because it is someone you don't know should not matter, it is morally wrong and yes, i've been to those sites mentioned because back then I had a morbid curiosity to look. Hopefully you will out grow it just as I have.

Maybe so, curiosity killed the cat though.

[EXEcution]

theync.com

and you thought the car wreck was bad

warning: VERY graphic

Here's another fun trick for you all to try. Go to google.com type in "offended" and hit I'm Feeling Lucky. Scroll down the list and see how far you can get.

The point is that whatever you think is "bad" there will always be worse. However, I feel that such images should not include the names of those who were involved. Keep it anonymous so people don't sue and try the impossible like removing anything "worthy" from the Internet.

The world is only as f*cked up as you make it out to be.

[Bingo]

Here's my take -

To me it's not even a matter of if the internet *should* be censored but more a question of if the internet *could* be censored.

I honestly don't know how anyone possibly can control the content. Yes countries like China try to block certain content but pretty much every article I've read that mentions it also mentions that it's almost useless. Certainly as long as new urls can be registered domain blocking won't work, proxies get around other methods, etc etc.

Now, on a personal level I would do everything I can to do something like respect that families wishes and keep the photos from being posted here. That's purely a matter of respect and doing the right thing.

Other content, regardless of if I liked it or not I would have a harder time with. Because I do believe in that old saying about 'I may disagree with what you are saying but I will fight to the death to defend your right to do so."

I would genuinely love to live in a world where people had enough common sense to be able to respect right and wrong and where EVERYONE realize that just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.

[JIMINATOR]

yeah, the content is already out there and it cannot be stopped. but here I see a big problem with vultures coming up with websites and webpages that are based on her name. that causes the pages to appear higher in the lists when people do a search. I think that is extremely offensive.

and for the record, google trends does not post offensive content or even links to offensive content. it tracks the most common keywords that people are searching for.