A beheading video is a video which depicts a live murder by beheading or the aftermath (e.g., display of the severed head). Such videos are typically distributed mostly through the Internet, [1] and are often employed by groups seeking to instill shock or terror into a population. Although beheading has been a widely employed public execution method since the ancient Greeks and Romans, [2] videos of this type only began to arise in 2002 with the beheading of Daniel Pearl and the growth of the Internet in the Information Age, which allowed groups to anonymously publish these videos for public consumption. The beheadings shown in these videos are usually not performed in a "classical" method — decapitating a victim quickly with a blow from a sword or axe — but by the relatively slow and torturous process of slicing and sawing the victim's neck, while still alive, with a knife. [3]
The first beheading by the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty was of Daniel Pearl in 2002. [4] The videos were popularized in 2004 by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a radical Islamic militant. [5]
The videos caused controversy among Islamic scholars, some of whom denounced them as against Islamic law; al-Qaeda did not approve and Osama bin Laden considered them poor public relations. Regardless, they became popular with certain Islamic terrorist groups, such as the Islamic State. [6]
Early videos were grainy and unsophisticated, but, according to the Chicago Sun-Times , had by 2004 been "growing in sophistication, using animated graphics and editing techniques apparently aimed at embellishing the audio to make a victim's final moments seem more disturbing". [7] These videos are often uploaded to the Internet by terrorists, then discussed and distributed by web-based outlets, [8] such as blogs, shock sites, and traditional journalistic media. In 2013, a beheading video by a Mexican drug cartel spread virally on Facebook. The non-profit organization Family Online Safety Institute petitioned Facebook to remove the video. [9] Initially, Facebook refused. [10] They later complied, [11] and subsequently clarified their policies, stating that beheading videos would only be allowed if posted in a manner intended for its users to "condemn" the acts. [12]
Writing in The Atlantic , Simon Cottee drew a comparison between jihadist videos and gonzo pornography. [13]
A hoax beheading video filmed by Benjamin Vanderford, Robert Martin, and Laurie Kirchner in 2004 received wide attention from the American press. [71] The video used Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad's logo, but not the group's flag. It was originally filmed for Vanderford's local election campaign. [72] He was seeking Matt Gonzalez's seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. [73] Vanderford's second intention was to point out how uncritically the mainstream media would accept an anonymous video. [74] The Islamic Global Media Center claimed to have made the video, but removed it from their website after the hoax was discovered. [75] The video also appeared on other militant websites and was broadcast on Arabic television. [76] [77]