Another sad case of a school massacre being promoted on YouTube prior to the actual event taking place. The gunman, now being hospitalized for a head wound, was a fellow student of Jokela High School in Tuusula Finland. And while his real name is not being revealed, his YouTube screen name is Sturmgeist89.
He killed seven children and the principal today, when he opened fire with a .22-caliber handgun in the southern Finland school, hours after the posting of the YouTube video. The clip shows a still photo of a building that appears to be Jokela High School, then shows the photo breaking apart to reveal a red-tinted image of a man pointing a handgun at the camera.
Unfortunately this user Sturmgeist also seems to be a racist, posting that he’s “prepared to fight and die for my cause. I, as a natural selector, will eliminate all who I see unfit, disgraces of human race and failures of natural selection.” “Sturmgeist” means storm spirit in German.
So what to do? In light of this particular situation taking place only months after Cho Seung-Hui’s video blogs were publicized, will parents and authorities use this as an example of how social networks need to be more regulated? There are other cases where a YouTube clip or a social networking profile actually helped catch a criminal. And in one way to look at it, some could consider this to be the case with the Jokela High School shooting as well. What this does bring to the world’s attention is the influence of YouTube as a tool for communication. Should YouTube be scouring its web content in a more proficient manner for questionable clips?
[via Reuters]
Visit here to subscribe to these commentsUser comment: By: CountRobGlad to see this being covered. There were people talking about it on YT even before the press covered it. Sturmgeist89 (who also went by the name of NaturalSelection89) was not known by a wide audience, but he did get some underground attention. His videos only got around 75 - 100 views, I think. The chilling thing is that AmazingAthiest (A guy who debated Sturmgeist) predicted something like this would happen. And that was way back in July. I've never encountered Sturmgeist directly, but I remember AmazingAthiest's debates with him. It's a small world... Here is one such debate: http://youtube.com/watch?v=SGscnCn9fNY