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Thursday, September 24, 2009

How did anti-Bloomberg vlogger Suzannah B. Troy get censored?

A search two days ago for Suzannah B. Troy's video blogs on YouTube turned up statements about her account being suspended. Likewise, her aliases were also suspended.
One wonders whether there was some political manipulation from mayor Michael Bloomberg was responsible for bringing down her site access. "Queens Crap" blog suggests such a possible connection, "YouTube censors Blogger: WEEKS BEFORE NYC MAYORAL ELECTION, YOUTUBE.COM SUPPRESSES FREE SPEECH." Anyway, Troy's access was restored by today.
While I don't support all (or most) of her views --she went on a rant against campaigns' illegal stapling of signs around city lampposts, and I think that those are an acceptable form of advertising -- she should not have her constitutional rights of free speech trampled upon.
She is a little bit of a crank for my ears, but she has done some solid volunteer reporting on the autocratic posture of New York City's mayor, and Council President Christine Quinn's complete caving in to Bloomberg.
Here's Queens Crap's pitch; maybe it had an effect on the restoration of Troy's vlog.
First Suzannah B. Troy, next us.

Ms. Troy has spent months creating, editing, and posting hundreds of original citizen journalist videos focusing on the controversial election this year of local candidates running for third terms in office. In particular, Ms. Troy's videos have been highly critical of the New York City Council and Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The nature of the videos on her YouTube.com account have ranged from breaking news-quality videos of voter demonstrations, to video blogs of her commentary on the elections, to artistic interpretation of news events. There is no reason for her account to be suspended by YouTube other than for the political and artistic nature of their content.

Please write to Youtube at: press@youtube.com and ask them for their official policy of suspending accounts of artists and citizen journalists.

We are only weeks away from an important election, which shall decide if City Council Members and Mayor Bloomberg will thwart the will of voters' two referrenda on term limits. And missing from the free exchange of ideas during the critical debates that will be taking place in the time leading up to the election will be Ms. Troy's body of work.

Without you stepping in to blog, publish, or report about this questionable suspension of Ms. Troy's YouTube account (as well as the potential of loss of hundreds of videos), other citizen journalists may face the same sad fate : cyber suppression.

Please consider the importance of voter participation in free and open democratic elections.

Whatever the reason for the restoration of Troy's vlog, let's hope that nothing like this happens again, especially between now and the November 3, ELECTION DAY.

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