The “Same Love” video, a remix of Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ song, to protest homophobia in Africa, has sparked controversy after Kenya’s government attempted to stop people from watching it.
Kenya Films Classification Board (KFCB), the country’s regulator of the visual content, has required Google to take down a gay music video from YouTube but only drew more attention to its contents instead.
KFCB Chief Executive Ezekiel Mutua said: “Kenya must not allow its people to become the Sodom and Gomorrah of the current age through psychological drive from such content. We have written to Google to remove the video from their platforms. We expect they will do it within one week from now to avoid further violation of the law.”
The video that has already been been viewed over 140,000 times shows secret male and female same-sex relationships, several openly gay Kenyan public figures, anti-gay protests in Nairobi and multiple newspaper articles headlines condemning homosexuality.
However, Google’s office in Kenya has refused to take down the video as it has no power over content on the Youtube channel. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Google commented on the situation:
“YouTube has clear policies that outline what content is acceptable to post and we remove videos violating these policies when flagged by our users. We review government removal requests when notified through the correct legal processes and in keeping with our company philosophy on transparency and freedom of expression.
Homosexuality in Kenya is not anly a widespread taboo but an offense punishable by imprisonment up to 14 years. Despite this, various organisations are working to protect and improve LGBT rights.
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