WASHINGTON – The White House said Friday it had contacted video sharing website YouTube to ask for a review of an anti-Muslim movie that sparked riots and attacks on US diplomatic posts in the Arab World.
National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said that officials “reached out to YouTube to call the video to their attention and ask them to review whether it violates their terms of use.”
On Wednesday, the Google-owned site said the film, “Innocence of Muslims,” was within the firm’s guidelines and would not be taken down, though access to it was temporarily restricted in Egypt and Libya.
Access to the movie was been blocked in Pakistan and Afghanistan and Indonesia has called for it to be removed from YouTube.
Extracts of the film were still available on YouTube Friday, though were accompanied by a warning that the content was “potentially offensive or inappropriate,” adding that viewer discretion was advised.
White House spokesman Jay Carney described the spreading demonstrations and attacks on US diplomatic posts in the Arab world sparked by the video as “a fairly volatile situation.”
“It is in response to a video, a film, that we have judged to be reprehensible and disgusting.
“That in no way justifies any violent reaction to it, but this is not a case of protest directed at the United States writ large or at US policy. This is in response to a video that is offensive to Muslims.”
The video has been blamed for sparking violence which saw a crowds penetrate US embassy buildings in Egypt and Yemen, the killing of four Americans in Libya, including the US ambassador, and further attacks in Sudan, Tunisia and Yemen.
