YouTube faces more heat for its refusal to censor "The Innocence of Muslims," a controversial video that depicts Islam's Prophet Muhammad in an unflattering light. The Daily Telegraph reports that 10,000 Muslims have gathered outside Google's London offices to excoriate the company for continuing to host the video in the UK. The BBC reported that the protest only drew 3500 protestors.

Google has already taken some actions to limit access to the video, blocking users in Egypt and Libya from viewing it, but the Mountain View company has refused to censor the video in other parts of the world.

Carrying signs with slogans like "Freedom of speech = Hatred to Muslims?" and "Freedom to insult," the protestors have demanded that Google change its free-speech stance.

"Terrorism is not just people who kill human bodies, but who kill human feelings as well. The makers of this film have terrorized 1.6 billion people," speaker Sheikh Faiz Al-Aqtab Siddiqui told the Telegraph. "You can't just say it doesn't matter that it's freedom of speech. It's anarchy."

But Google isn't backing down. "What's OK in one country can be offensive elsewhere," a spokesman told the Telegraph. "This video—which is widely available on the Web—is clearly within our guidelines and so will stay on YouTube."

The American principle of free speech is not universally accepted around the world. For example, France and Germany ban their citizens from denying that the Holocaust occurred. Google executives have been arrested in Brazil and Italy to punish Google for hosting content that violated local laws in those countries. And of course, countries like China engage in extensive censorship, as do numerous Middle Eastern governments.

Still, we have little sympathy for the idea that legal action is generally needed to prevent people from "killing human feelings." Offensive words are fundamentally different from violent actions, hurting peoples' feelings is not terrorism, and Google deserves credit for standing up for the free speech rights of its UK users.

Correction: Our original headline stated that there were 10,000 protestors, based on the Telegraph's reporting, but other sources give conflicting figures so we have modified the headline.