In “Watershed Moment,” YouTube Blocks Extremist Cleric’s Message
The New York Times’s Scott Shane reports that YouTube recently deleted the majority of the content from Anwar al-Awlaki, a prominent English-language jihadist recruiter who was killed six years ago by a drone strike. Shane writes, “After Mr. Awlaki’s death, fans often labeled even his early material as the work of the martyr killed by America. The number of videos on YouTube presenting or celebrating his work more than doubled from 2014 to 2017, even as investigators found his decisive influence in most of the major terrorist attacks in the United States and some in Europe.” The removals come in response to criticism from counterterrorism advocates such as the Counter Extremism Project, a research organization.