For the second time in two months, YouTube has yanked from its site a video produced by Students For Life Of America as "content inappropriate." A week ago today, SFLA posted an undercover video that exposed a Planned Parenthood facility in Charlotte, N.C., purportedly covering up the presumed statutory rape of a 15-year-old girl. (The person in the video was a college student posing as a minor.) A day later, YouTube removed the video as a violation of its terms of use. Two months earlier, YouTube deleted another SFLA video that criticized the explicit content on the Planned Parenthood sex-education Web site Take Care Down There. In a press release issued today, SFLA Executive Director Kristan Hawkins cited the banning of her group's videos and of videos produced by other organizations as proof that YouTube censors pro-life views. She said the video-sharing site is "acting more like the oppressive Chinese government than an independent company operating in America." Hawkins contrasted the removal of videos that highlight the unethical and potentially illegal tactics of Planned Parentood with YouTube's decision to allow "Eucharist Descecration" videos that have been condemned as hate speech against Catholics. "If they are going to allow a video to permeate their site which offends millions of Christians worldwide despite being flagged by thousands for its hateful and violent manner, there should be no reason to take down videos which expose the truth about the nation's largest abortion provider," she said. "YouTube is no longer a friend to pro-lifers." The latest SFLA video investigation is still available online, however. The group posted it to Eyeblast in two parts on Monday.
