"I'm Not Ashamed" producer Chuck Howard is planning to sue Google after its subsidiary YouTube removed the film's trailer from its website for nearly a year without providing a plausible reason why it did so.
Howard, who is a former music producer and now a Christian filmmaker, told the Washington Times that because YouTube took down the trailer, they lost a lot of advertising and marketing opportunities. He accused the company of being a biased media monopoly against Christians.
"As of yet, we have not filed suit against Google, but are exploring all options," Howard said. "We've missed 11 months' worth of advertising. They've destroyed us from carrying the momentum that we originally had going forward."
The trailer already garnered over five million views before YouTube, for reasons still unclear, took down the channel nearly a year ago. It was only reinstated after The Hollywood Reporter contacted YouTube about it.
The film's production company, Pure Flix Entertainment, said it was "never provided with any clear explanation or substantiation of why the movie trailer was removed."
YouTube said the trailer was taken down not because of any bias.
"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," it explained in a statement.
Meanwhile, Nise Davies, another one of the film's producers, revealed they only found out that the trailer had been taken down when the actors in the film informed them about it. "It was just gone. It was shocking," said Davies.
"I'm Not Ashamed" is the story of the first person killed in the Columbine High School shootings, Rachel Joy Scott, a devout Christian. It started screening in U.S. theatres on Oct. 21.
