Soon after the airing of the now famous anti-Islam video on You Tube, hell broke in the Muslim community and the worldwide rage began. In response to the massive reaction, White House has instructed Google, the official owner of You Tube, to remove this controversial video clip. However, Google refused to do so and has its foot firm saying that as the video has, in no way, violated the terms of the website. However, the access to the video has been restricted in the countries like India, Indonesia, Egypt and Libya as the video is deemed offensive for the community.
According to Google’s statement on Friday, the video has been uploaded on their online video sharing website You Tube and it clearly fulfills the guidelines of the website hence there is no question of removing it.
With the title “Innocence of Muslims”, this short film is being branded a humiliation for the Muslim community across the globe and consequently the clipping has ignited a spark in the entire Muslim community. US embassies all over the Middle East are the victims of the violence. Libya is one country where the violence took a deadly face resulted in the killing US ambassador and other three US officials. Investigations are on high pace in Libya to find out whether it’s a rage sparked after the video clip or is it a cover for the militant group Al-Qaida in order to kill the Americans. FBI officials have been deployed by the US Government in order to catch the militants responsible for this alleged attack.
As far as the video is concerned, it is evident that it has intensified the situation in some parts of the world and to pacify the situation Google restricted its access in Libya and Egypt. Later during the day of the video being beamed over the web, it was also banned in India and Indonesia on account of being a ‘sensitive issue’ in these countries.
In a recent statement, You Tube and Google cleared that outside the countries where the video is nabbed, the clipping will be available easily. It has also been said that there are many things that are offensive in one country, but acceptable in others so such videos cannot be blocked everywhere. Moreover, the video is not containing any ‘hate speech’ hence will stay on the website.
“We make all efforts to develop a common place where everyone has the right to speak freely and to share their opinions openly”, as per You Tube statement.
This controversy again shows the limitations of free speech that people face all over the world. Let’s see for now how the global leaders tackle this sensitive issue. For now we hope for global peace and for such issues to remain unraked.
