Reporter's Dad Sues YouTube, Google

It's been more than four years since WDBJ Reporter Alison Parker and Photographer Adam Ward were shot and killed in Roanoke, Va., by a former co-worker during a live televised interview.

The gunman, Vester Lee Flanagan, recorded the murders, and while he was running from police, he posted the video on his Facebook and Twitter accounts, from where it was shared widely and posted numorous times to YouTube.

Flanagan later killed himself.

Alison Parker’s dad Andy is taking on YouTube and parent company Google to remove graphic content like the murder videos that still exist of his daughter.

Parker along with Georgetown University Law Center’s Civil Rights Clinic filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission Thursday against YouTube and Google for deceptive practices on its platform.

The complaint alleges YouTube violates its Terms of Service by hosting videos that gruesomely depict violent murders and conspiracy theories that harass and target families. "They have a responsibility to parents, kids and the public, in general, to ensure people aren't exposed to this horrific content. They should be protected from this stuff," said Parker.

Since 2015, Parker has made countless attempts to have videos taken down of his daughter’s murder that still exist on YouTube. Parker says the responses he’s received from both companies have been “outright lies.” He alleges YouTube's refusal to remove the videos are rooted in a financially incentivized motive.

Parker says that, to this day, he’s never seen the video of his daughter’s death.

H/T USA Today

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