“YouTube is a popular free video sharing website which lets users upload, view, and share video clips. Videos can be rated, and the average rating and the number of times a video has been watched are both published.” This is the definition of YouTube quoted from Wikipedia. The access to free video sharing has earned a lot of popularity for Youtube, and this has also resulted in the abuse of such free services.
I disagree to a large extent to the statement that YouTube has been created for the sole purpose of entertainment and money, neglecting ethics. In my opinion, I feel that it was the users who was responsible for misusing the service, and therefore trying to create trouble through their ignorance towards world and religious issues. A 44-second film showing graffiti over the Thai king's face which was aired on YouTube, showed a good example of insensitivity. The contentious film also shows feet being placed over the king's face - an offensive act to Thais, who consider feet dirty. Hence, it is not surprising that the Thai authorities banned YouTube in Thailand. The video clip should have been immediately removed from YouTube, but Google declined. Realising that is was a mistake, they are currently looking into the matter. Although YouTube was wrong in declining to remove the video clip, it does not justify that the company has no ethics. It is obvious that most of us have benefited a lot from YouTube. The wide range of video clips not only provides us with a source of entertainment, but also as an important site for sharing and retrieving sources for research purposes.
Everyone needs to make a living, but if the activity involved causes more good than harm, then it there should not be a problem doing it. Also, it is hard to imagine a world without entertainment, and worst still, without free online entertainment.
