14 DAY TRIAL // After numerous clips showing Nazi salutes were published on YouTube, the Austrian authorities started an investigation over the young soldiers who appeared in them. The Defense Minister Norbert Darabos said for Reuters that all the soldiers were identified and will be soon questioned about the YouTube clips. It seems like the clips were recorded with a mobile phone and showed some Austrian soldiers who were saluting each another using the famous 'Heil Hitler' expression.
"There is zero tolerance for such actions. Those involved will have to answer to the army and the law and take the consequences," the Defense Minister said according to Reuters. "Did these soldiers want to win over others to their convictions or was this perhaps just a drunken party?" Salzburg prosecutor Karl Rene Fuerlinger added for the same source.
What's more interesting is that this simple YouTube clip might bring the young soldier a sentence of up to 10 years in prison if they are considered guilty. Obviously, the clips were already deleted from the online video sharing service but the Nazi symbols are considered a crime in Austria so it caused quite a big trouble for the local authorities.
This is not the first time when some simple clips published on the Internet and especially on YouTube can send the main actors in prison. Very often, Google's online video sharing platform publishes student fights that record an impressive audience until they are discovered by their schools' officials. Obviously, the videos are then removed from the page and the students are sent to the police and suspended from schools.
YouTube is an online video sharing service acquired by Google in October 2006 when the Mountain View company paid $1.65 billion. Meanwhile, the product grew up a lot and is now considered the leader of its category, having million of users every day.