Tech insider: Firms implemented plans to stem spread of grisly video after Syria killing

A Silicon Valley insider says tech companies drafted plans to scrub the web after a grisly video showing the beheading of an American journalist by Islamic State militants — and implemented them this week after a second killing.

Video showing the death of James Foley last month ricocheted through social networks in what many feared was a propaganda coup for the extremists. The tech official said Wednesday that a YouTube video showing a second beheading, of American journalist Steven Sotloff, was deleted as accounts and Tweets linking to it were suppressed.

The official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because companies are grappling with increasing pressure to impose more censorship on the web, did not say whether the developments came at the request of governments or ordinary users.