Entertainment
U.S. Court: YouTube May Show ‘Innocence of Muslims’ Film
In this Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012, file photo, Cindy Lee Garcia, one of the actresses in “Innocence of Muslims,” right, and attorney M. Cris Armenta hold a news conference in Los Angeles asking a judge to issue an injunction demanding a 14-minute trailer for the film be pulled from YouTube. A federal appeals court on Monday, May 18, 2015 overturned an order for YouTube to take down the anti-Muslim film that sparked violence in the Middle East and death threats to actors. (AP Photo/Jason Redmond, File)
(Reuters) – Google Inc. should not have to remove an anti-Islamic film from its YouTube website because a woman complained that she was duped into performing in the film that depicted the Prophet Mohammed as a pedophile, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Monday.
In a case widely followed for its potential impact on the entertainment industry, an 11-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said an injunction prohibiting Google from broadcasting the film should be lifted.
A three-judge panel had ordered Google to remove the controversial film “Innocence of Muslims.” Billed as a trailer, it triggered anti-American sentiment among Muslims in Egypt, Libya and elsewhere in 2012.
For many Muslims, any depiction of the prophet is considered blasphemous.
Protests over the film coincided with an attack on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi that left four Americans dead, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya.
