New Delhi: A video, with a message of peace, has been removed by YouTube from the News Vibes of India (NVI) account, by making a bizarre claim that it violates its “community guidelines”.
In the video, a Kashmiri woman is seen desperately urging her militant son to shun the path of violence and return home to his family.
The woman, a resident of Kakapore in Pulwama district of Kashmir, is the mother of Asif Majid Dar, who has recently joined militancy.
The woman, with the photo of her son in a mobile phone, is heard saying that the family is very disturbed ever since Asif joined militancy. She says that everyone in the family is worried.
“If he is with anyone, please send him back home…We are left with nothing,” the woman pleads.
Indian Army’s Srinagar-based Chinar Corps has urged Asif to listen to his mother’s appeal and assured him that it will assist and help him in every way possible to safely return home.
The NVI posted the video on YouTube on April 12 with the objective of spreading the message of peace and the hope that someone may see it and help the distraught woman.
The YouTube, however, removed it and sent an email to the NVI, saying the video was “flagged to us for review” and “Upon review, we’ve determined that it violates our guidelines and we’ve removed it from YouTube.”
It, however, did not specify as to which guideline was violated. It only gave a link for studying its Community Guidelines.
It added that “if you believe this was a mistake, we’d like to hear from you.”
To appeal the removal, it gave a link to a “form”, which has a Feedback section. NVI sent its appeal on the ‘Feedback’ section yesterday but there has been no response to it.
A reply to the email address, from which the message from YouTube was received, bounced, with a message ‘Address not found’.
In its appeal, the shocked NVI contended that “by posting the video, we were just trying to spread the message of peace”. It questioned “Does spreading the message of peace go against the guidelines of YouTube?”
It wrote that “for the sake of fairness, YouTube should have heard us, before removing the video through an ex-parte action.”
