Post date: Sep 20, 2012 11:40:25 PM
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (SEPTEMBER 20, 2012) (REUTERS) - An anti-Islam film trailer that has spawned violent protests across the Muslim world can remain on YouTube despite a request from a California actress to have it taken down, a judge ruled on Thursday (September 20).
An anti-Islam film trailer that has spawned violent protests across the Muslim world can remain on YouTube despite a request from a California actress to have it taken down, a judge has ruled.
Actress Cindy Lee Garcia had sought to have the film removed in a suit filed on Wednesday (September 19) against both YouTube's parent company, Google, and a California man linked to the film, saying she was duped into taking part and had since received death threats.
A Los Angeles superior court judge denied the request for the clip's removal.
Garcia's is the first known civil lawsuit connected to the making of the video that depicts the Prophet Mohammad as a womanizer and a fool and which helped generate a torrent of violence across the Muslim world last week.
The violence included an attack on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi in which the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed. U.S. and other foreign embassies were also stormed in cities in Asia, Africa and the Middle East by furious Muslims.
In her lawsuit, Garcia accused a producer of the movie, whom she identified as Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, using the alias Sam Bacile, of duping her into appearing in a "hateful" film that she had been led to believe was a simple desert adventure movie.
Garcia spoke a news conferences before and after the court hearing articulating her frustration with the film clip remaining online.
"I think that we need to take it off because it's going to continue to cause more problems and it's going to continue to not only cause more problems in the Middle East but in my life as well. It's a horrible thing that they put on. It had nothing to do with anything that was filmed," said Garcia.
Last week, Google rejected a request by the White House to reconsider its decision to keep the clips on YouTube. In a statement released this week, YouTube stated that the video did not violate the website's guidelines so that it would stay online but that they had made efforts to restrict access in countries where the video would be considered illegal.