Sen Ayotte Criticizes White House over Google Video Request

Sen Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) criticized the White House for suggesting that Google remove a controversial anti-Islam video from the its YouTube video-sharing site in response to violent protests in Egypt, Libya, and other predominantly Muslim countries.

“Google is a private company, and they’re going to take what actions they believe are appropriate where they conduct their business throughout the world,” Sen Ayotte said. “But in our country, we believe in free speech, even if the speech is offensive and that’s part of our First Amendment. And so for here, I don’t think it was appropriate for the White House to call on them to pull the video down.”

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said that Google should be allowed to do what it wants and added that the government should not play a role in dictating such moves. It’s “different whether Google does it privately or whether the government would ban something. And I don’t like the government banning anything,” he said. “But I have no sympathy at all for people producing things that incite other countries not to like us, either.”

[Editor’s note: “We reached out to YouTube to call the video to their attention and ask them to review whether it violates their terms of use,” said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.]