Saturday, September 15, 2012

Google rejects White House request to pull Mohammad film clip

From Reuters:

A visitor is seen at the You Tube stand during the annual MIPCOM television programme market in Cannes, southeastern France, October 3, 2011. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard
A visitor is seen at the You Tube stand during the annual MIPCOM television programme market in Cannes, southeastern France, October 3, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Eric Gaillard
SAN FRANCISCO | Fri Sep 14, 2012 6:04pm EDT
(Reuters) - Google Inc rejected a request by the White House on Friday to reconsider its decision to keep online a controversial YouTube movie clip that has ignited anti-American protests in the Middle East.
The Internet company said it was censoring the video in India andIndonesia after blocking it on Wednesday in Egypt and Libya, where U.S. embassies have been stormed by protestors enraged over depiction of the Prophet Mohammad as a fraud and philanderer.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed in a fiery siege on the embassy in Benghazi.
Google said was further restricting the clip to comply with local law rather than as a response to political pressure.
"We've restricted access to it in countries where it is illegal such as India and Indonesia, as well as in Libya and Egypt, given the very sensitive situations in these two countries," the company said. "This approach is entirely consistent with principles we first laid out in 2007."

3 comments:

Epaminondas said...

Satisfactory response. Not ideal but acceptable

Always On Watch said...

The film maker has now been brought in for questioning. I'm not sure whether this action is on the part of the state of CA or the feds.

Anonymous said...

I understand it´s the feds.