In June 1989, a single photograph of a solitary young man staring down a line of tanks became the iconic image of the Tiananmen Square protests.
Almost 20 years later, the anti-Chinese protests in Tibet are the subject of thousands of videos captured by professional media outlets, plus the residents and tourists.
Anyone with a camera and access to the Internet or a wireless phone network can upload a video from an international hot spot. Whether shot with skill or a shaky hand, the proliferation of user-generated content is transforming how people around the world take note. That now includes places where anti-government news images were scarce or non-existent.
In the case of Tibet, the volume of content is so overwhelming that China has shut off access to Google-owned YouTube for its residents, following similar moves in recent months by Turkey and Myanmar. In all three countries, access to YouTube remains closed.
The Chinese government said Friday that it has also shuttered access to several video-sharing sites because they could carry content that is pornographic, violent or poses a threat to national security. Official rules went into effect Jan. 31, according to media reports. But this week’s YouTube crackdown comes amid violent protests in Tibet. A YouTube search on “Tibet” returns 23,100 videos, with much of that content added over the past week.
“It’s incredible how quickly information moves and how quickly people have to respond to it,” said Sophie Robinson of Human Rights Watch in Washington.
Mindful of ‘sensitivities’
The amount of video posted on sites like YouTube is staggering.
“Ten hours’ worth of video is uploaded to YouTube each minute,” Penry Price, Google’s vice president of North American sales, told a roomful of Chicago marketing executives Thursday.
But it is a “balancing act” to manage that content while being considerate of cultural norms, said Ricardo Reyes, a YouTube spokesman. “Sensitivities are different all over the world.”
YouTube does not approve of the actions taken by the governments of China, Myanmar and Turkey. A Turkish court barred YouTube access after deciding one clip violated a law prohibiting insults against the country’s founding father. Last year, Myanmar shuttered YouTube after videos appeared of protests by Buddhist monks.
“We believe YouTube offers citizens the world over a vital window on cultures and societies and that they should not be denied access to video information,” Reyes said.
In a statement, Google said it “is working to ensure that the service is restored as soon as possible.”
In a move that drew extensive criticism, Google in 2006 acknowledged modifying search results for its Google.cn service to comply with local Chinese laws and regulations.
As YouTube’s influence has grown, it has also created country-specific sites. There are 18 now, including one based in Hong Kong that also is blocked.
“Video discovery is better if it’s in a local language,” Reyes said. “In Korea, they tend to look for Korean content. The top videos are different” than what can be found on “global” YouTube.
In recent months, YouTube has tested software to track copyright violations. It is working with major TV networks and studios by getting master versions of content that can be used to sniff out copies. Reyes said the software is “working very well.”
In theory, such technology could be used to filter videos of the Tibetan violence, said Allen Weiner, an analyst with Gartner Inc. who closely follows YouTube. “But the technology is only as good as the plan to implement it,” he said. “They need to have a firm set of rules that applies to everyone.”
That could include the removal of things such as pornography, foul language or violence, he said. “But one set of rules for China and one for everyone else will not work.”
Rod Slemmons, director of the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College in Chicago, remembers the national response that sprang from Vietnam War photos published in Life Magazine. He wonders if online content has similar impact, or if the volume is numbing.
“There’s something remote about seeing videos on YouTube and responding to a blog that’s not quite the same, politically, as everyone getting in their cars and driving to Washington, D.C.,” he said.
Risk of overexposure
Activist groups consider overexposure issues as well.
Witness, a human rights group, uses citizen-generated content and professional media to lobby policymakers. In December, it launched a Web site called The Hub to collect videos on human rights issues.
“With the plethora of media that’s out there … the fabulous thing is you can find anything,” said Chris Michael, The Hub’s coordinator. “But once you get there, what are you going to do with it?”
Even as a worldwide crew of citizen reporters floods the Web with coverage, Slemmons said they may lack the professional temperament to capture a historic image.
“The very best [photojournalists] are completely cold-hearted,” he said. “The people who are the very best at recording traumatic things are the ones that are able to completely abstract themselves from the actual event.”
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