YouTube Takes Down Gang Rape Documentary After Order From Indian Court

"India's Daughter," by British documentarian Leslee Udwin, includes interviews with an accused rapist and defendants from the December 2012 gang rape and murder of a New Delhi 23-year-old.

YouTube on Thursday blocked several videos from BBC 4's documentary "India's Daughter," following India court orders.

YouTube

The documentary includes interviews with parents and a tutor of the victim, as well as interviews with one of the accused rapists and two of his lawyers.

This order comes one day after the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued an advisory to Indian TV channels banning the documentary and any excerpts. While the documentary had yet to be released when this advisory was issued, the ministry had seen excerpts that, according to their advisory, "appear to encourage and incite violence against women, thus compromising women's public safety. They also provide encouragement to antisocial elements to indulge in violent acts compromising law and order."

A YouTube spokesperson told BuzzFeed India that the platform is required to comply with legal notices such as the one issued in this case:

"While we believe that access to information is the foundation of a free society, and that services like YouTube help people express themselves and share different points of view, we continue to remove content that is illegal or violates our community guidelines, once notified."

Leslee Udwin conducted 16 hours of interviews with the driver of the bus and accused rapist Mukesh Singh. Short excerpts of his interview were released earlier this week, prior to the originally scheduled release date of Mar. 8.

India's Daughter / Via BBC / Storyville

Following the government advisory banning its release in India, BBC 4 released the documentary last night, Mar. 4, on BBC as well as online on YouTube.

AP Photo/Altaf Qadri

While some links containing the video have been blocked by the court order, it is still available for viewing on various YouTube channels, and available for download on torrent websites.