14 DAY TRIAL // The "Innocence of Muslims" video has been a big headache for YouTube. The site found it complied with its community guidelines, so it can't and didn't remove it. But that decision sure means a lot more trouble for YouTube.
On the one hand, the White House came calling, asking YouTube to "review" the video, after the site had already declared that it's staying up.
Now, the site is being sued by one woman who stars in the movie, asking for the video to be removed since it has caused her a lot of problems.
She says, as other actors involved also do, that she was tricked during the shooting and had no idea of what the movie was about. The controversial stuff was edited later, after shooting.
Due to the video, she has lost her job and has even received death threats, so you can understand why she'd want it gone. But a California judge refused her request to force YouTube to remove the video.
He said that he had no grounds to order the video removed and said the matter was a privacy invasion issue at best, which would need to be directed at the creator of the video. Even then, she would have a hard time getting anything, the judge said.
The video has caused international controversy and violence, so it's been very successful in its purpose. It's led to the death of the US ambassador in Libya and plenty of riots and violence in several Muslim countries.
YouTube has already blocked it in countries where it would be deemed illegal, quite a few of them, but even so, some people are not satisfied. The Pakistani prime minister, for example, wants the video removed altogether, even if it's already blocked in his country. Russia is also thinking about banning YouTube altogether for the video.