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US appeals court will revisit order to remove anti-Islamic film from YouTube

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A US appeals court said on Wednesday it will reconsider an order directing Google Inc to remove from its YouTube video sharing service an anti-Islamic film that sparked protests across the Muslim world.

Earlier this year a three-judge panel on the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ordered Google to take down the film. An 11-judge panel will now rehear the YouTube case, the court said.

A Google spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment, nor could an attorney for the plaintiff who appeared in the film.

Cindy Lee Garcia objected to the film after learning that it incorporated a clip she had made for a different movie, which had been partially dubbed and in which she appeared to be asking: "Is your Mohammed a child molester?"

By a 2-1 vote, a 9th Circuit panel rejected Google's assertion that the removal of the film "Innocence of Muslims" amounted to a prior restraint of speech that violated the US Constitution.

The controversial film, billed as a trailer, depicted the Prophet Mohammed as a fool and a sexual deviant. It sparked a torrent of anti-American unrest among Muslims in Egypt, Libya and other countries in 2012.

That outbreak coincided with an attack on US diplomatic facilities in Benghazi that killed four Americans, including the US ambassador to Libya. US and other foreign embassies were

also stormed in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

For many Muslims, any depiction of the prophet is considered blasphemous.

Google had refused to remove the film from YouTube, despite pressure from the White House and others, though it blocked the trailer in Egypt, Libya and certain other countries.

The case is Garcia vs. Google Inc et al., 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 12-57302.

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