Google has denied the White House a request to have the controversial anti Muslim movie removed from YouTube. The mysterious movie, which has caused the lives of the United States Ambassador to Libya as well as four others, has led to wide spread violent protests in several Islamic countries in the Middle East as well as North Africa.
The United States Government had hoped that Google would consider a violation of its terms of service in the mysterious low-budget movie clip enough reason to act in favor of axing it. However, the company has no such plan to have the 13 minute clip movie “Innocence of Muslim” produced by Nakoula Basseley Nakoula axed.
Late Friday, the company issued a statement saying it plans to keep the movie up in most countries; but went ahead to assure that access to the clip would be denied to a few Middle Eastern counties.
Google’s official statement reads: “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 every sensitive situations in these two countries.” The release further states that “this approach is entirely consistent with principles we first laid out in 2007.”
Google said the film does not violate its terms of service regarding hate speech since it was against Muslims; and not against Muslim people. The blocking of the 13 minute movie clip in Libya and Egypt was done without any external pressure since it was not a case of violation of its terms of service. This measure was quickly taken as an extraordinary one in response to the delicacy of the situation.
The company maintains that its decisions where based and consistent with a 2007 policy for controversial content in which Google takes into account; and not exactly laws of its policies, but cultural norms.
According to Google’s senior vice president for communications and policies Rachel Whetstone; “one type of content, while legal everywhere, may be almost universally unacceptable in one region, yet viewed as perfectly fine in another.” “We are passionate about our users, so we try to take into account local cultures and needs.”
However, YouTube said it will continue to monitor circumstances as they take shape in other countries.
“The Innocence of Muslim”; a 13 minute low quality movie is a highly controversial one that has also raised certain questions about Google’s role when it comes to governing free expression. Google does not police videos uploaded on its site; however, it never fails to review videos that have been flagged by users as inappropriate or if there is a court order or request from government or request to remove them.
