YouTube Blocks More Videos on Racist Planned Parenthood Abortion Donations
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
September 9, 2008
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — The popular video sharing web site YouTube has blocked a fifth investigative video from the pro-life group Live Action exposing the racist donations Planned Parenthood accepted. YouTube provided no advance warning, but sent an email citing "an alleged privacy violation."
YouTube has also not responded to the group’s inquiry about why the first four videos critical of Planned Parenthood were marked as "content inappropriate."
UCLA student Lila Rose, who was behind the videos and the expose’ of Planned Parenthood with the investigative phone calls, told LifeNews.com that the web site EyeblasTV contacted Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
Schmidt’s company owns YouTube and he said, "I don’t know the details, but I’ll certainly look into it" when asked about the problems.
However, the next day, the fifth video was blocked from the Live Action Films user channel and neither Google nor YouTube have released any further information about the decision.
"YouTube’s discrimination is outrageous," Rose told LifeNews.com. "Rather than respond to our concerns about the censorship, YouTube is confirming its Orwellian conduct and silencing the voices of investigative reporters."
Rose said copies of Live Action’s investigative videos uploaded by another student’s channel had been removed as well.
The videos have been viewed more than 160,000 times and had been on YouTube for seven months before the latest controversy.
They included phone recordings of Planned Parenthood development workers agreeing to process the donations for abortion of a donor with a racist agenda. The videos received widespread media attention last spring and sparked national outcry from black pastoral leadership.
"Why are YouTube and Google so hesitant to explain themselves?" asked Rose. "Until they clarify their judgment criteria, their actions will not reflect responsible management, but outright discrimination."
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."
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.
Related web sites:
Live Action – https://www.liveactionfilms.org
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