Image copyright Facebook/ Emily Lance Image caption Emily Lance shared a video of herself urinating on a US flag

A woman who shared a video of herself urinating on an American flag has asked that people stop targeting her family, saying they do not support her actions.

Emily Lance received online threats of murder and rape after posting the video during Independence Day celebrations.

Her account is no longer on Facebook but she previously posted that her father and his workplace had also been "targeted", reports say.

Desecrating a US flag is not illegal due to strong freedom of speech laws.

In the video, Ms Lance is seen standing over a toilet on which a US flag is draped, and urinating on it with the aid of a device that allows women to do so standing up.

She captioned it with: "F*** your nationalism. F*** your country. F*** your stupid f****** flag".

Later she made a plea for her opponents not to "take your anger out on the wrong people", saying no-one in her family "agrees with my shenanigans".

"They've got nothing to do with my decisions," she continued.

She did not explain how her father and his workplace had been "targeted".

"What don't you people understand? You're celebrating freedom while damning me for doing the same. You can't have it both ways," she said.