THE director of controversial film The Red Pill has slammed Channel Seven after the network forced Facebook to remove a copy of a heated Sunrise interview from her page.

Cassie Jaye earlier this week hit out at Sunrise and Network Ten’s The Project for “hostile” interviews, saying she had “never been treated” so badly in any other press appearances for the film.

The film explores issues at the heart of the men’s rights movement including suicide rates, sexual assault and custody issues.

A copy of the interview with Andrew O’Keefe and Monique Wright was removed from the Sunrise Facebook page after a wave of comments critical of the hosts and supporting Ms Jaye. The filmmaker subsequently uploaded the interview to her own page, where it was viewed more than 60,000 times before being removed yesterday.

@sunriseon7 first uploaded the video of my interview with them to their @facebook & then deleted it. So I uploaded it & they had it removed! pic.twitter.com/nVWP7QX4Gq — Cassie Jaye (@Cassie_Jaye) June 14, 2017

“Facebook has removed content ... because we received a report that it violates someone else’s intellectual property rights,” a notice from Facebook to Ms Jaye reads. “If repeat infringement continues, Facebook will be required to block the ability to upload videos and photos to your page. Ultimately, we could remove the page entirely.”

A spokeswoman for Seven declined to comment on the copyright take-down but said “the Weekend Sunrise segment and interview ... is on the Sunrise website for all to see”.

Ms Jaye said she was “absolutely dumbfounded”. “Australian TV show Sunrise has deliberately filed a complaint with Facebook to have the video of my interview with them removed from The Red Pill’s Facebook page,” she wrote on Facebook.

“It had over 60,000 views in less than 24 hours and I don’t know how many comments! I’ve been travelling and sadly haven’t been able to read the comments yet. Now Sunrise has removed the video and all of the comments on it!

“For those of you that don’t know, I did an interview on the Australian TV show Weekend Sunrise on June 11. The hosts, Andrew O’Keefe and Monique Wright, chose to not watch The Red Pill before the interview, but they decidedly hated the film and aimed to smear my name. Since it was a live interview, they looked foolish and Aussies saw through it.

“Today, Sunrise had the video removed from The Red Pill’s Facebook page. I don’t know what to do. I think it should be seen! Does anyone have any ideas? It seems that Sunrise is proactively trying to have it erased from history! At least it’s still on my YouTube channel (for now).”

Ms Jaye also disputed the hosts’ claims that they didn’t receive a copy of the film until the night before the interview, posting screenshots of emails to prove working links were sent to Sunrise’s producer a month earlier.

Found all the emails! PROOF @sunriseon7 was sent the @redpillmovie ONE MONTH in advance. Sent on May 9- AND on June 7- AND on June 10 by me! pic.twitter.com/sFMKKXgo6Q — Cassie Jaye (@Cassie_Jaye) June 12, 2017

The controversial film has faced a major backlash from women’s groups in Australia, with a number of cinemas including Dendy and Palace pulling screenings. In April, the University of Sydney Student Union banned showing the film on union premises ahead of a planned screening organised by the three conservative student groups.

“The Red Pill is purported to be a film which highlights issues specific to men in our society,” the USU said in a statement. “The USU is obviously supportive of efforts to bring awareness to, and to combat, issues such as the higher suicide rate for men than women.

“The reality of The Red Pill, however, is much more sinister. This documentary is decidedly anti-feminist and anti-woman, focusing not on the ways in which the systemic issues of patriarchy may also adversely affect men, but instead placing the blame on women and feminism specifically for men’s issues.”

In an interview with Sky News host Andrew Bolt this week, Ms Jaye said many people in Australia were against her film “without ever having seen it”.

“Someone who hadn’t seen the film, Andrew O’Keefe, he had a lot of opinions about the film and he adamantly hated the film, but he hadn’t seen it, so that seems to be the going trend here in Australia with these petitions,” she said.

“People who have seen it know that there’s nothing anti-women or anti-feminist about the film, it’s simply looking at all different perspectives and allowing the audience to make their own opinion.

“There [are] obvious silencing tactics happening, and I think a large part of the censorship around The Red Pill movie here ... is the result of potentially fearmongering by these types of media outlets like The Project and Sunrise.

“[They are] inciting fear in the public and the people that this film is something that needs to be locked away and never see the light of day because it’s just too dangerous for Australia. It’s absolutely ridiculous. I urge people to watch it for themselves, and then you will see through the fearmongering tactics in Australian media.”

frank.chung@news.com.au