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Censored

by Michael G. Mickey
(11-2-09)

A recent video I posted to my YouTube.com account and featured here, I learned today, has been rejected due to "inappropriate content."

The title of the video was "Barack Obama indoctrination video and worship service." It was posted on September 25th and featured video footage of schoolchildren, under the direction of their government employee teacher no less, singing two songs about Barack Obama that featured lyrics from "Jesus Loves The Little Children" and the tune of "The Battle Hymn of The Republic".

While the original footage of the children singing was posted all over the worldwide web with their faces plainly visible, I took an additional step to conceal their identity in my video by blurring the children on film to the extent you couldn't make out their faces. Not only that, I made no mention of where the original video was filmed in my uploaded video, another measure I took that others on the worldwide web did not.

So, what, exactly, was "inappropriate" about the video I uploaded? YouTube's generic message to me on the topic of the video's rejection led me to the site's community guidelines page where I sought to discover what was "inappropriate" about it.

Here are issues that YouTube.com lists as qualifiers for a video to be labeled as "inappropriate":

  • Sex and Nudity - None of that in the video.
  • Hate Speech - None of that.
  • Shocking and Disgusting - While the children singing praises to Obama was shocking and disgusting to me, the video wasn't gory, graphic, violent, etc. No offense on my part I can see there.
  • Dangerous Illegal Acts - Definitely none of that depicted in my video.
  • Children - Could this be why the video was pulled? Here's what their policy states: "Videos involving children (anyone under the age of 18) are particularly sensitive. Videos containing children should never be sexually suggestive or violent. Please be cautious when posting something involving a child. If you’re sharing a private moment or home movie, consider making it a private video so that only your family and friends can see it." There was nothing sexually suggestive or violent in the video. In fact, as stated earlier, the kids were singing a song about President Obama! What one could visually see of the children in the video was nothing but colorful blob outlines of them. My only interest in posting the video was for my subscribers to see the lyrics, some of which I wrote out, and to hear the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic featured in a song about President Obama.
  • Copyright - Copyright claims are never labeled as "inappropriate content" based on my experience. Even if a copyright claim had been posted, it would've been defensible as a Fair Use of the video under U.S. copyright law as it was newsworthy enough to be featured on a number of television and web news sources, not to mention that conduct of this behavior is in keeping with what my subscribers expect me to share with them, which I do without seeking profit.
  • Privacy - There was no privacy complaint filed. If there had been, according to YouTube's policy, they don't act on a complaint of that nature before giving the party that uploaded the video an opportunity to edit the video in question, reload it, etc.
  • Harassment - My video wasn't harassing of anyone clearly.
  • Impersonation - Nothing of that sort in my video.
  • Threats - No threats in my video.

The bottom line, readers? It is my opinion that someone took an inappropriate liberty with my video because they deemed it politically incorrect, not because of anything malicious, harmful or "inappropriate" contained in it whatsoever.

Sadly, there is no mechanism for one to respond to actions taken like these, get a proper explanation as to why the action was taken, or voice any grievances. If you get censored in this particular manner, you get censored with no recourse whatsoever. From my perspective it's persecution, plain and simple.

We can expect more of this type of behavior as time moves forward because the powers that be, both in Washington and in most large media outlets, are working their hardest to stifle all things conservative, particularly all things of a conservative Christian nature.

Matthew 5:11: Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

Inappropriate content? I think not, YouTube! Rather, inappropriate conduct on your part.

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