Google has announced it will comply with a recent court decision banning the American anti-Islam film “Innocence of Muslims” in Russia, said a company spokesman.
Google, which owns YouTube, on which the video was originally posted, said it would block Russian users’ access to the video as soon as it received a court order, after a court in the Chechen Republic on Friday ruled that the film should be considered extremist content.
Under the law, any ruling passed by a Russian court on extremist material applies nationwide, though individual courts may challenge the decision with the Supreme Court as the ultimate arbiter.
Murat Tagiyev, Chechnya’s Minister of National Policy, Press and Information, said the film may cause “destabilization of the political situation in the region, most of whose population is Muslim,” he added.
Mobile content providers in the North Caucasus republic also limited access to YouTube on Thursday in connection with this controversial video.
A Moscow court is set to consider a ban on the film on October 1.
Protests against the film were reported yesterday in both the North Caucasus and in Ukraine’s Crimea republic, which is home to a minority Muslim Tatar population.
The film, which ridicules the Muslim Prophet Muhammad, has ignited violent protests across the Muslim world and has galvanized criticism of Western policy in the Middle East and North Africa.