The most popular post in the history of ReadWriteWeb is titled "Top 10 YouTube Video of All Time." Online video in general, and industry-leader YouTube in particular, are a mainstay of the online world. It's been used for dissemination of news, for comedy, for medicine, and now, for narcoterrorist gang warfare.
Yesterday, a video was posted on YouTube of two men, their hands bound, announcing that they had "killed the Michoacanos." A sign between the men gave instructions for finding the bodies of what looked to be 18 missing and murdered tourists.
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The bound men were apparently gang members who said they killed the men as revenge against yet another cartel, a Michoacan outfit called "La Familia." Their off-camera questioner seemed to be a member of the Independent Cartel of Acapulco, or CIDA, a drug gang. Which gang the men belonged to is uncertain.
Twenty missing men, mechanics from Michoacan on vacation, were visiting Acapulco, in adjacent Guerrero state, when they were kidnapped at gunpoint on September 30. These men may well prove to be the same that were murdered.
The penetration of the social Web into unsavory aspects of life should not be surprising, but it is. The idea of watching Between Two Ferns on the same service as narcoterrorist sending "messages" is repugnant. Why? After all, on TV we watch Sesame Street one day and broadcasts of war the next. So why the revulsion? It may not be solely the act that is objectionable.
When we use a tool, we invest some of ourselves in it. Video sharing is not as passive, at least in its construction, as something like television. Most of us have not had a hand in building television. So for criminals to put their videos on YouTube is a long-distance variant of their putting their filthy hands on our stuff, more visceral than a philosophical objections could ever be.
What do you think? Do you in fact find the use of video sharing by criminals repellent? And if so, why. For that matter, if not, why?
(The video, which would violate the company's guidelines, looks to be gone from the service.)
Acapulco photo from Wikimedia Commons
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