Saudi prosecution accuses YouTube of supporting terrorism

The Saudi Public Prosecutor has accused the renowned social networking site YouTube of contributing to spreading extremist ideology and helping recruit young people to join terrorist groups.

The prosecutor made the accusations during the trial of eight Saudis and two Yemenis accused of shooting at a security patrol in Riyadh in 2005.

The prosecution said investigations revealed that the group members received instructions to carry out their terrorist attacks from a Daesh leader through videos published on YouTube.

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The prosecutor accused the defendants of 63 charges, including listening to lectures by Daesh thinkers via YouTube, responding to an inflammatory lecture calling to kill foreigners and security men, as well as carrying out instructions from one of the organisation’s leaders to shoot at security men with the intention of killing them.

According to the prosecution this proves that YouTube is directly involved in the recruitment of terrorists and trying to carry out a shooting attack against two security men in the capital Riyadh.