Google rejects White House request to pull anti-Islam film, again
The internet company said it was censoring the video in India and Indonesia after blocking it on Wednesday in Egypt and Libya, where US embassies have been stormed by protestors enraged over depiction of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) as a fraud and philanderer.
On Tuesday, the US Ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed in a fiery siege on the embassy in Benghazi.
Google said it 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."
White House officials had asked Google earlier on Friday to reconsider whether the video had violated YouTube's terms of service. The guidelines can be viewed here
Google initially said on Wednesday that the video was within its guidelines.
US authorities said on Friday that they were investigating whether the film's producer, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a 55-year old Egyptian Coptic Christian living in Southern California, had violated terms of his prison release. Basseley was convicted in 2010 for bank fraud and released from prison
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this is the worst type of cruelity in the name of freedom of expression. and you all should ashame of it
@=A=
It seems everyone in Pakistan believes that in the USA it's against the law to say bad things about Jews or dispute the holocaust -- that's just nonsense. You can dress up like Hitler and stand outside a Synague proclaiming that the holocaust was a myth- might get some stares and ridicule but you won't go to jail. In the USA no religion get special treatment - that includes Christians, Jews and Muslims.
Pakistan may/shall block Google website's access within Pakistan provided that Google didn't remove the anti-Islam movie like Youtube and Google would never like to be blocked within Pakistan because Google earned $500m profit accessing from Pakistan and in case of blockade Google may definitely loose this huge amount of money as profit from Pakistan and Google shall have to remove the anti-Islam movie's all links from itself to avoid itself from blocking.......
@Cautious: Agreed to some extent. America started out great, but has lost its way somewhere during the last century due to various reasons. To your point, we would appreciate the freedom of expression even more if it extended to all things for everyone. If they can draw the line at Jews and Holocaust, then we can draw the line at things which hurt Muslim sentiments. There should be no discrimination. However, violence is no answer, and protests should be peaceful and focused rather than violent and destructive.
It may not be obvious to Pakistani's - but Google's ability to tell the White House no is what makes America great. The Constitution provides for freedom of speech and freedom of religion and while exercising those rights occasionally creates conflict they are core values that make America strong and provide for stability seen in few countries on this earth.