‘I'm Not Ashamed’ has already hit cinemas for a week, where the story focuses on Rachel Joy Scott who gave her life back to Jesus in the Columbine High School shooting in 1999. Interestingly enough, the movie’s maker, Pureflix, is mulling over the possibility of actually bringing Google to court on the grounds that Google has banned the ‘I’m Not Ashamed’ YouTube trailer for close to a year. You can check out the trailer below.
‘I’m Not Ashamed’’s producer has accused Google that the company which professes to “do no evil” has removed the movie’s YouTube trailer for close to a year simply because of anti-Christian bias. This does not come across as surprising, and if one were to actually pay closer attention to the various political and civil rights movements over the past few decades, you get to see more and more anti-Christian sentiments seeping into our culture -- from the removal of crosses in schools to banning of prayers at public spaces, to the approval of an alternative lifestyle, the laundry list is a long one.
‘I’m Not Ashamed’ also sees ‘Duck Dynasty’ star Sadie Robertson play a role inside, just in case you were wondering who else is involved in this project. Chuck Howard came up with a YouTube channel in 2015 in order to publish the movie trailer for ‘I’m Not Ashamed’, in addition to other behind-the-scenes footage. That particular trailer managed to attract more than 5 million views before the trailer was removed in October last year. To rub salt into the wound, YouTube failed to furnish the filmmakers with specific details on the reason behind the removal of the entire channel.
Things did not brighten up at all, which meant a major method of promoting the movie is now unavailable. After all, YouTube has proven to be an extremely effective channel for movie trailers to debut, garnering plenty of views and generating hype in the process. It was only after The Hollywood Reporter inquired about the removal of the YouTube channel which featured the trailer, was the entire channel reinstated.
The Hollywood Reporter claimed that the filmmakers did invest a few months of their time in an attempt to extract a reasonable explanation from YouTube concerning the movie trailer’s removal, as well as to whether the movie was offensive -- and in what manner, but the reply from YouTube amounted to nothing. Post reinstatement, the channel was slapped with a "temporary penalty", accompanied by a warning that any future videos which were deemed objectionable "could prevent you from posting content to YouTube or even lead to your account being terminated." Pretty zany for something like this to happen in "Christian" America, don't you think so?
The Washington Times did snag an interview with the filmmakers, and it seemed that Howard shared, "As of yet, we have not filed suit against Google, but are exploring all options. We've missed 11 months' worth of advertising. They've destroyed us from carrying the momentum that we originally had going forward."
A YouTube spokesperson issued a statement, "With the massive volume of videos on our platform, sometimes we make the wrong call on content that is flagged by our community. When this is brought to our attention, we review the content and take appropriate action, including restoring videos or channels that were mistakenly removed."