Finland massacre: YouTube provided early warning
Screen shot taken from murder suspect's video
YouTube this week handed authorities in Finland an opportunity to stop a mass killing.
After spotting several threatening videos allegedly posted to YouTube by student Matti Saari, Finnish police tracked down and questioned the 22-year-old man on Monday. Authorities there are now answering questions about why they freed Saari, who on Tuesday gunned down 10 classmates and then killed himself at the vocational school he attended.
The sick trend of school shootings continues: Columbine, Virginia Tech, and last November's Jokela High School Massacre, also in Finland. What was different this time was that police were in a position to prevent the slaughter once they saw Saari's videos on YouTube. The clips featured Saari firing a handgun and making threats. One showed him pointing a gun at the camera and saying: "You will die next."
But there has been a debate about whether videos like the ones Saari posted should even exist on YouTube. Following the latest shooting, YouTube's "hand's off" approach toward such content is once again under scrutiny.
YouTube bans graphic violence and pornography and removes such content once flagged by users. In most cases, the site doesn't work proactively to censor speech. To be sure, there are plenty of videos at YouTube advocating the destruction of one group or another.
In the wake of last November's slaughter at Jokela High School by Pekka-Eric Auvinen, when the high school student went on a shooting rampage that left nine people dead, some argued that YouTube should do more to block hate speech or clips that promote violence. The thinking here is that YouTube may be the vehicle that inspires and emboldens teens and others to take lives. I'll just point out the obvious: School shootings were occurring long before YouTube hit the scene.
The way I see it, when the next deranged soul chronicles his preparations for murder by posting a video to YouTube in the way that Saari did, perhaps the clips will help authorities stop him. YouTube can act as an early warning system.
An example of that preventive characteristic may have come as I write this. The Associated Press is reporting that police in Sweden on Thursday arrested a 16-year-old-boy after viewing a suspicious clip he allegedly posted to YouTube.
There's no question that hate speech and threats of violence are disturbing and ugly. But if YouTube starts scrubbing the site of such videos, then the public has less information about those who promote these ideas.
I think it's better to know your enemy, especially when he or she might be preparing to harm you.
Greg Sandoval covers media and digital entertainment for CNET News. He is a former reporter for The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. E-mail Greg, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sandoCNET. 
The one thing you get wrong: there is no "trend." The fact that you have to include the almost decade-past Columbine shootings should tell you that.
There have been tragedies like this - killings in a crowded, public place - as long as there have been crowded, public places.
The next point - that the authorities should "stop" someone based on YouTube videos or writings - implies that the law allows the authorities to incarcerate someone based on only words. And I'm curious how you would enact and enforce this, beyond "just stop them."
I'm listening.
If the teaser gets shot then he is still not the victim. The teaser is the agresssor.
Individuals are programmable. All of us.
If we are not programmed properly, we can go bad.
It is all in the programing by role models and peer groups.
Now you know.
I do not agree that what a person sees dictates their actions. While we may become desensitized to violence, television and the internet are neutral. The violence is generated by the individual, and the experiences of that person (especially the impact of the parents) have far more to do with influencing a persons attitudes and personality.
You did not invent the gun, you learnt that it exists and was invented from the rest of the ecosystem, you learnt its capabilities from it, you are always being influenced actively or passively by your ecosystem. Same goes from your actions. Over the millenia, knowledge has been spread and adopted through all the different mediums, a net or books or personal training is not different. People are influenced no matter what.and they act on it because of it. They see it working in one context and apply it to their own.
For one if someone makes a video saying they are going to kill someone you can bet that they are going to do it, i.e. this is an example right here, youtube could send the videos to the authorities and they could take action to prevent such actions from happening. also since youtube is based in the us and under the constitution everyone has the right to free speech and therefore youtube should be allowed to censor speech
When they are provoked for being mentally handicapped and they let their rage lose then they still remain the
original victims and when they shoot then they are still the victim and the people shot are targets and not victims.
COMPLICIT denialbility to think kids can tease tease tease forever is ending. This just shows kids have no emapathy.
A protest? A football game? Wrestling? Boxing? Someone shooting a gun at a shooting range? Arm wrestling? Action clips from movies? Martial arts?
Please. The reason youtube COULD have prevented this from happening is BECAUSE the video existed on youtube. It existed, people found it, people had an opportunity to stop it.
Is the problem guns? Is the problem these videos? What if you take them away? What do you have? You still have a troubled teenager who has the mental desire to kill.
The problem is that we are becoming a country more and more that relies on government to teach, babysit and provide for our children. Everytime we allow our corrupt governments to do this with anything everything gets worse. Stop allowing government to take so much power over your children. And YOU start teaching your children morals. Show them love. Show them consequence when they screw up.
9 times out of 10 kids that are troubled have broken homes. We need to focus on creating family.....not government.
Yes by talking about it we are giving him/her reason or purpose for what he/she did, but at the same time I do not see us as "warning the phycopaths......(sp)"
There's a difference between psychopaths and sociopaths. What happened here is just another instance of someone acting out because either one of multiple things, the 2 I'm siding with are stated below.
-Broken home (when growing up you have many critical phases that if you don't get, your life can be really tough).
-Society in the area, teen angst, etc.
Quit looking to say that we are the problem, when if you think we are...do something about it. Not talking about tragedies such as this is to say that we don't recognize the hate of this world.
Parents, stop raising your kids with a "do what you want" attitude. When I was growing up if I even thought of disrespecting my parents, or elders I was in trouble. Bring back the "board of education" and whip some sense into these kids.
Greg's article is an example of this: "perhaps the clips will help authorities stop him." What does this say about us? We - as citizens - don't have any responsibility to stop members of our community from killing each other? Or, more importantly, to help them out of their obviously excruciating pain before they can hurt anyone? Do we even have community anymore? When was the last time you hung out with your neighbor? What happened to "love thy neighbor?"
I've done some volunteer work in Africa. There, in the villages, everyone works together like a big family. Sure, they have problems, but they know who's having trouble and band together to help them. So many of the adults have dies of AIDS, so other families step in to take care of the children. Can you imagine that happening here?
As long as we want simple, clean, easy solutions, we're going to have big government. If you don't like big government, you have to look in the mirror.
Those guys are not the enemy and they are not a part of the axis of evil. They are just sick.
detaining the individual, searching his house or apartment for weapons.
having him evaluated by Mental Health staff.
It's very sad and senseless.
The mentally handicapped will fight back when the last straw has been taken.
Your mental mindset at the time when teasing someone with less then mental capacity has to be
examined first. If my son did that and got shot and lived I would be asking my son why he teases these poor people. Keep stepping on the sleeping dogs tail people! You can not claim victimhood status when you do that.
Individuals are programmable. All of us.
If we are not programmed properly, we can go bad.
It is all in the programing by role models and peer groups.
Now you know.
- by Researcher45 December 24, 2008 12:58 PM PST
- Where to start? Yes sudden violence has appeared through history. It does not involve guns in all situations. In Malaysia it is called Amok. Among the Navajo, iich'aa. Here in the United States it is called Going Postal. These are all Culture Bound Syndromes.
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(26 Comments)In Japan recently a video game player rented a truck, drove into a crowd, jumped out stabbed seventeen killing seven.
The cause of these events may be explainable as Subliminal Distraction exposure meets sociopath. Subliminal Distraction is explained in college psychology under psychophysics, the physiology of sight. SD was discovered as a problem when it caused mental breaks for office workers. The cubicle and Cubicle Level Protection were created to deal with the vision startle reflex to stop the problem by 1968. So few people know about this phenomenon that it is never investigated. Auvinen, the Joleka shooter, created the circumstances for SD exposure in his home computer location beside a closet door mirror.
Several mass shooters had this exposure and most gave no warning. VisionAndPsychosis.Net has a five year investigation of these shootings.