Yesterday, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, (I-CT) asked Google to remove YouTube videos produced by terrorist organizations like Al-Qaeda which depict assassinations, deaths of U.S. soldiers and civilians, weapons training, terrorist speeches and other propaganda to incite violence against Western counties.

"Islamist terrorist organizations use YouTube to disseminate their propaganda, enlist followers, and provide weapons training – activities that are all essential to terrorist activity. According to testimony received by our Committee, the online content produced by al-Qaeda and other Islamist terrorist organizations can play a significant role in the process of radicalization, the end point of which is the planning and execution of a terrorist attack," said Lieberman in a letter to Google CEO Eric Schmidt.  "YouTube also, unwittingly, permits Islamist terrorist groups to maintain an active, pervasive, and amplified voice, despite military setbacks or successful operations by the law enforcement and intelligence communities."

"I ask you, therefore, to immediately remove content produced by Islamist terrorist organizations from YouTube. This should be a straightforward task since so many of the Islamist terrorist organizations brand their material with logos or icons identifying their provenance...Protecting our citizens from terrorist attacks is a top priority for our government. The private sector can help us do that.  By taking action to curtail the use of YouTube to disseminate the goals and methods of those who wish to kill innocent civilians, Google will make a singularly important contribution to this important national effort."

While YouTube did remove some of the content that depicted violence or hate speech, it left most of the videos from these organizations on the site. 

In a written response, YouTube replied to the Senator requests:

"Senator Lieberman's staff identified numerous videos that they believed violated YouTube's Community Guidelines. In response to his concerns, we examined and ended up removing a number of videos from the site, primarily because they depicted gratuitous violence, advocated violence, or used hate speech. Most of the videos, which did not contain violent or hate speech content, were not removed because they do not violate our Community Guidelines...We believe that YouTube is a richer and more relevant platform for users precisely because it hosts a diverse range of views, and rather than stifle debate we allow our users to view all acceptable content and make up their own minds."

Did Google make the right decision?  Tell us what you think.