British government involvement in Youtube censorship

John Walker made this Freedom of Information request to Cabinet Office

Cabinet Office did not have the information requested.

From: John Walker

1 March 2009

Dear Sir or Madam,

A friend of mine recently received the following email from
Youtube:

"The following video(s) from your account have been studied after a
complaint by a third party acting on behalf of the British
government. The inspection has been by the YouTube team under our
Community Guidelines:

* zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Your account has now received one Community Guidelines warning
strike, and you are suspended for a period of three Months from
uploading any new material onto the channel itself. Additional
violations will result in the disabling of your ability to post
coments to YouTube and the termination of your account forthwith.

It may interest you to note that after consultations with the
British authorities your own channel has now been branded "highly
distasteful", and therefore it will not now be possible to send
your videos to "Friends"."

Please supply:

1. a copy of the policy documents relating to government meddling
with Youtube content and your legal justification for interfering
with free speech;

2. the name of the government department that Youtube consults with
regarding these and other "distasteful" videos;

3. the name of the "third party acting on behalf of the British
government".

Yours faithfully,

John Walker

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M Bimmler left an annotation ( 2 March 2009)

I would also send this to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and possibly others, to probe whether they hold information.
For some reason, I foresee that Cabinet Office will just respond with "no information held" to this...

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Cabinet Office

4 March 2009

Dear Mr Walker

RE: FOI269949 - British Government Involvement In YouTube Censorship

Thank you for your e-mail of 1 March 2009 requesting the following
information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act):

Please supply:

1. a copy of the policy documents relating to government meddling

with Youtube content and your legal justification for interfering

with free speech;

2. the name of the government department that Youtube consults with

regarding these and other "distasteful" videos;

3. the name of the "third party acting on behalf of the British

government".

The Act gives rights to requesters in relation to recorded information
held by Public Authorities. I am writing to advise you that following a
search of our paper and electronic records, I have established that the
information you requested is not held by the Cabinet Office.

You may however wish to re-direct your request to the Home Office, as
their remit includes work associated with determining what might be deemed
inappropriate material for public consumption.

The Home Office FOI contact details are as follows:

Home Office

Direct Communications Unit

2 Marsham Street

London

SW1P 4DF

e-Mail: [email address]

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please
remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your
request or wish to request an internal review, you should write to:

Sue Gray

Director

Cabinet Office

70 Whitehall

London

SW1A 2AS

e-mail: [Cabinet Office request email]

You should note that the Cabinet Office will not normally accept an
application for internal review if it is received more than two months
after the date that the reply was issued.

If you are not content with the outcome of your internal review, you may
apply direct to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally the
Commissioner cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the
complaints procedure provided by Cabinet Office.

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioners Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Kind Regards

Keith Roberts

Ministerial Business Advisor

Transformational Government

Cabinet Office

Address:

Cabinet Office

Transformational Government

Room 1.6A

Admiralty Arch (South)

The Mall

London

SW1A 2WH

Tel: 020 7276 3248

e-Mail Address: [1][email address]

Website: [2]http://www.cio.gov.uk/transformational_g...

[3]WWW.DIRECT.GOV.UK - THE PLACE TO TURN FOR THE LATEST AND WIDEST RANGE
OF PUBLIC SERVICE INFORMATION

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References

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Things to do with this request

Anyone:
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