Tuesday, September 02, 2008

YouTube Again Accused of Censoring Pro-Life Videos, This Time on Planned Parenthood

From http://lifenews.com/nat4246.html

YouTube Again Accused of Censoring Pro-Life Videos, This Time on Planned Parenthood

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
September 2, 2008
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Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The popular video sharing web site YouTube is again accused of censoring pro-life videos. This time, the charge comes from a group of pro-life college students at UCLA who previously conducted investigative phone calls showing Planned Parenthood gladly accepts racist donations.The UCLA students published their initial report in The Advocate magazine after the students called Planned Parenthood centers in several states and found officials supportive of abortions on black Americans.
The magazine conducted a probe in seven states to find out how the staff members would react to a racist donor who wanted his donation used to promote abortions on African Americans.The magazine said it was shocked by the results.An actor, posing as a racist donor, called Planned Parenthood development centers and asked that his donation be used to abort African American babies in order to "lower the number of black people.""Each branch agreed to process the racially earmarked donation, with some encouraging the racist motive behind it," the Advocate editors told LifeNews.com. "None expressed concern about the racist reasoning for the donation."

The students made videos of the telephone calls but has learned that YouTube has blocked four videos over the past two weeks, saying that the videos contained "inappropriate content.”YouTube gave neither advance warning nor specific reasons for why the videos were removed, and has not responded to requests from the students, who have formed a group called Live Acton, to cease censorship and to unblock the videos for public viewing. Live Action Media Director David Schmidt told LifeNews.com, "These four videos have received over 160,000 YouTube views in total with the oldest video having been public on YouTube for over seven months. Why are these videos being removed now?" YouTube has censored videos from pro-life organizations in the past, as recently as this year. In July, a short film by the pro- life Population Research Institute highlighting dishonest reporting from a pro-choice filmmaker was censored. YouTube eventually responded to criticism and restored both videos.

Also, YouTube took down a video from Citizens for a Pro-Life Society showing an abortion center that was investigated for illegally dumping medical waste. "It is discriminatory for YouTube to selectively censor material that clearly does not contain inappropriate content," states Live Action President Lila Rose. "We will continue to apply pressure on YouTube until it restores the videos." She points out that Live Action has compiled a compelling case of evidence on its web site, LiveActionFilms.org, documenting how YouTube has selectively censored conservative groups. People can also view the banned videos on Live Action's website and learn how to help petition YouTube to restore the videos.

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