NEW YORK, March 5 (UPI) -- Hundreds of videos by terrorism-promoting preacher Anwar al-Awlaki remain on YouTube despite calls to remove them.
Awlaki, the American-born Muslim cleric believed to be living in Yemen, is such a prolific video preacher he has been called "the Osama bin Laden of the Internet," The New York Times reports.
In fluent English or Arabic with English subtitles, YouTube viewers can see him denouncing America's "war on Islam," hailing the attempt by his "student" to blow up a U.S. airliner with an underwear bomb and making the case for murdering American civilians.
YouTube, a subsidiary of Google, depends on viewers to flag objectionable material, and many of Awlaki's videos, which deal with religious matters, do not violate its rules. Spokeswoman Victoria Grand said an average of 35 hours of video is uploaded every minute, making advance screening impossible.
"There's no way as a practical matter to wipe this material off the face of the Internet," said John Morris Jr. of the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington.
U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., said YouTube "could do a better job. I'd give them a C with an opportunity to improve."
