Atheist Pat Condell‘s latest video — a criticism of Saudi Arabia and Sharia Courts — has been removed from YouTube due to “Terms of Use Violation.”
The message he received said:
The following video(s) from your account have been disabled for violating the YouTube Community Guidelines:
Welcome to Saudi Britain – (patcondell)
Your account has received one Community Guidelines warning sanction, which will expire in six months. Additional violations may result in the temporary disabling of your ability to post content to YouTube and/or the termination of your account.
Condell responds (in angry upper-case form):
THE VIDEO HAD OVER 40,000 HITS IN THE 24 HOURS IT WAS UP, AND IT WAS THE TOP RATED VIDEO ON THE WHOLE OF YOUTUBE. YOU CAN STILL SEE IT AT MY WEBSITE:
http://www.patcondell.net
Condell is now in danger of losing his YouTube channel.
The website EuropeNews says:
Apparently YouTube, who has had some challenges with Turkey and Pakistan, have decided that it is easier to block ‘problematic’ content themselves than standing up for freedom and have Pakistani Internet operators wreck havoc on them.
We are still waiting for the day when big media realizes they have a responsibility to stand up for freedom of expression.
Here is the banned video:
And here is a link to the petition he speaks of… there’s still time to sign it if you’re a British citizen.
(via Little Green Footballs. Thanks to Jason for the link!)