In a letter sent to Google, Lieberman goes so far to accuse the company of dropping the ball in the war on terrorism by permitting sites like the one belonging to Pimentel. The full text of the letter follows:

On Saturday, the New York Police Department arrested Jose Pimentel for constructing a pipe bomb to be used against U.S. military service members. Pimentel allegedly used the Internet to access instructions to make bombs and share his support for violent Islamist extremism.

Google sets its own standards for materials allowable on its servers. Through your updated YouTube standards, Google has affirmatively stated that terrorist content will not be permitted on some of your sites. I strongly believe that Google should expand that standard to include your other platforms. The private sector plays an important role in protecting our homeland from the preeminent threat of violent Islamist extremism, and Google’s inconsistent standards are adversely affecting our ability to counter violent Islamist extremism online.

While the ongoing debate about free speech and censorship continues (and will likely always continue), Google has made efforts for transparency by providing statistics and examples of some removal requests submitted by governments. Still, they did comply either completely or partially with over 60% of government requests in the United States to remove content, although few of those are indexed as “Hate Speech,” “National Security,” or “Violence.”

Do you think Google should comply with Lieberman’s request and do more to prohibit speech deemed to be insightful of terrorism? Do you think Google’s already doing enough with their current policy? Tell us what you think.

The use of the Internet by terrorists to recruit more followers continues to alarm the government. Easy access and minimal costs make the Net an ideal conduit for all kinds of ideas, unfortunately bringing the bad along with the good.

Lieberman wants Google to do what it can to stem the flow of one particular method of distributing terrorist information. In a letter from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs that Lieberman chairs, the Senator asked for help against a “multi-tiered online media operation that produces content intended to enlist followers in countries all over the world, including the United States.”

The letter also cited findings by the committee that various groups branded as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) were themselves engaged in branding activities as well.

“Searches on YouTube return dozens of videos branded with an icon or logo identifying the videos as the work of one of these Islamist terrorist organizations,” said Lieberman. “A great majority of these videos document horrific attacks on American soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan.”

To counter this, Lieberman wants Google to work harder at enforcing existing community guidelines on YouTube. “This should be a straightforward task since so many of the Islamist terrorist organizations brand their material with logos or icons identifying their provenance,” he said.

Both sides kept their cool and remained quite polite.  There hasn’t been even a hint of impending action against Google; the senator used words like "unwittingly" to describe its part in the process.  Just the same, Lieberman wrote, "Islamist terrorist organizations use YouTube to disseminate their propaganda, enlist followers, and provide weapons training – activities that are all essential to terrorist activity."

 Joe Lieberman

He later concluded, "I ask you, therefore, to immediately remove content produced by Islamist terrorist organizations from YouTube."

Google seems to have met Lieberman halfway.  The company replied, "In response to his concerns, we examined and ended up removing a number of videos from the site, primarily because they depicted gratuitous violence, advocated violence, or used hate speech."

However, "While we respect and understand his views, YouTube encourages free speech and defends everyone’s right to express unpopular points of view."

It’s unclear where the matter will go from here.  The senator asked for a response and got one, but insofar as terrorism is concerned, Google’s stance may not be strong.  Lieberman has the power to either make this a major issue or let it fade away, and at the least, YouTube’s employees will likely see a surge in the number of flagged videos.