M.I.A. Banned From YouTube!
M.I.A, Born Free from ROMAIN-GAVRAS on Vimeo.
Yesterday, we showed you M.I.A.'s disturbing, but thought provoking new video that had just hit the Internet.
We understand that for many, the footage is very hard to watch, but we were still somewhat surprised to learn today that YouTube has officially banned the video because of its graphic violence.
Give us five minutes and we could totally find dozens of videos that are worse than this. Besides, aren't their parental controls on this thing???
Stupid.
M.I.A. had posted on Twitter suggesting that her label bosses UMG were behind the ban, but later went back on to clarify that they weren't.
Don't want to piss off the label!
In case you missed it, here's the video again. (above)
Do U think it was right to ban it?
Tags: ban, music video, violence, youtube
Separated At Birth
What's Brad Doing Next?
They probably had to ban it due to its assault on the senses and lack of good taste. I've watched it 3 times and still don't know what I'm supposed to get from it. If Jackson Pollock was a director instead of an artist, this is what he'd make.
Dont you people read the real news? Arizona just passed a law that makes it legal for the police to stop and ask you for your birth certificate if you look like an immigrant. If you are brown then the police can just stop you and if you dont have proof on you that you are legal then you will be arrested. This video couldnt have come out at a better time because this situation is about to happen in your own backyard and yet you people are accusing this video of being a tool for shock value.
no i don't. it's an eye opener. but u know what? it's still going to be online some way or another.
violence isn't banned. this world is an imperfect place and much more terrible things have happened that people take notice of. this, is just a video. freedom of expression. i spit on thee youtube!
Re: hcoboy – You do realize that "prejudistic" isn't a word you fucking moron? And you go around calling people ignorant? Jesus fucking christ.
Re: semiauto25 – hahahhah yes i do realize that it isnt a word my spellcheck has told me a million fucken times its not a word, i have tried time after time to see if there is anything u can call people with the word prejudice in it but i just gave up and decided to write the word.. half of the people on here wouldnt know it wasnt a word but they understood what i was trying to say…..yes i do go calling people in here ignorant because you have seen their comments as well as me. tell me they are not ignorant for jumping to false conclusions and shit?
Re: wickedcatincanada –
That's not what I meant…you're right it did come out wrong and I think I overreacted after first watching this video. I like red hair I didn't mean to say it was undesirable, i just meant no one wants to be picked on for a feature they were born with.
Re: wickedcatincanada –
I didn't mean to say it in that sense you're right that came out wrong. I just meant people don't deserve to be picked on for something they were born with. I obviously like red hair I don't think it's a big deal it's a pretty hair color, I just wish people wouldn't pick on people for having it because it's not a defining thing.
People's responses to this video prove why it sends an important message.
Everyone is outraged by the violence and tragedy in this video because the victims are totally not who they expected them to be. The irony is that children are dying in the middle east, africa and other parts of the world every day and all these outraged people don't give that a second of thought.
i'm shocked that barely any people are mentioning that this is exactly what happened during the Holocaust… thousands of times a day at a concentration camp young children were shot in the head, or groups of people were told to run and then shot at by the nazis like it was target practice. innocent people were rounded up for being who they are and then heartlessly murdered. literally, this is portrayed as a modern day holocaust and suddenly people care? where were they during world war II…
Re: BritneyCobainWonderland – Thank you! People who call this disgusting or offensive probably don't go on youtube very often. So a kid gets shot in the head, pretty intense (thought the boy who exploded was worse but fine)… but this video is not the only clip on youtube that shows such graphic violence. One example, the family shoot em up from the movie Leon/The Professional. Teenage girl gets shot down in the back by a shotgun, mum gets shot while taking a bath, dad gets 6 shots fired into him and the youngest kid is mown down by a machine gun. But apparently, that's ok because it's on youtube..
Re: muonic – The only thing that I don't like about this video is that there are US flags on the army people's arms.
Re: muonic – why are you not ok with it? its a reality we dont wanna see…we discriminate in this country too, by gender, by sexual orientation by race…what the video is telling us is are we really gonna let ourselves get that far
I've seen the "Terrorism Has No Religion" public service announcement commercials from Iraq on YouTube. One features a suicide bomber blowing himself up in slow motion, and another one features a father violently kidnapped by extremists. In a series of rapid flashbacks, there was an extreme closeup of his bloody, decapitated body. If these videos haven't been banned by the 'Tube, then why this one? Also, in real life, this is how landmine clearance is conducted in some Middle Eastern countries. Children are kidnapped by soldiers and then forced to run along suspected minefields, blowing themselves up and clearing the fields for government use.
Re: wickedcatincanada –
and sorry i didn't mean to reply twice basically saying the same thing lol.
The video sux big ones…only one in 7 children are born with red hair…some crackhead is going to start killing redheads
This was pretty raw, but I found it powerful, and I'm jaded. I do understand youtube's concern. Some might miss the message and actually take the ginger thing literally and not have the brain cells to separate a potent video message from reality. Unfortunately, that's a real concern. I hate censorship, but my gut instinct is to protect beleaguered gingers from further random problems.
…Yes, this is what happened in the holocaust, it's also happening all over the world to all sorts of people. I don't believe this video has anything to do with the immigration law in Arizona, but some of the message can certainly be applied. So, it IS thought provoking, if you're in the right state of mind. If you're too young, or uninitiated, you might mistake it for shock for it's own sake, but it's not. Youtube is allowed to ban whatever it wants, the internet is not legislated. This is made for mature people, and they should be able to find it elsewhere if they want. For anyone else it will be frightening, and the merit will be lost, but that shouldn't have anything to do with the ban. The world is a scary place, we need to pay attention. Art is not always pretty. Sometimes it serves a purpose.
YouTube has far worse violence then this, and the MIA vid had artist merit.
Dr. Strangelove
University of Ottawa
Author of Watching YouTube: Extraordinary Videos by Ordinary People (University of Toronto Press, 2010)
Re: *glamourous* – lol. just thought it sounded weird! didn't mean to freak u out i was trying to be funny…….fail, huh?
why should they ban it? this may be disgusting, but it's real life. children need to face reality eventually. besides, there is a lot more worse things on the internet.
Re: justtfax – shut the fuck up bitch face. get over yourself, because these immigrants work harder then you ever had in your pathetic waste of human life.
i've seen a lot worse on youtube, but they have a really strict policy about no nipples.
gang fights, cops beating on suspects, violent accidents, all sorts of junk. but you show a little nip and they lose their minds.
anywho, it's in their policy for submissions, so if you violate it and show a little nip action it'll get pulled. if you want to post on the site you have to follow their rules. it's not 100% free speech protected, which some ppl think to think they are entitled to. but if you want to use their service you have to abide by their terms.
so yeh, if they feel it violated their terms (even if their terms are kinda silly in some areas), they should pull it. it's their website, they can post what they want and kick off what they don't like.
The biggest message I receive from this video is we have to stop the production of land mines right NOW. There is nothing more dangerously hazardous than land mines, The company making them, they must be stopped. NOW.
You Americans are all so stupid. M.I.A. is obviously using gingers as a metaaphor for people this is actually happening to in the world.
I liked it. It wasn't pointless violence. The redheads could have been gays who can't get married, blacks who have been herded into prisons, or latinos who have to fight immigration laws. The violence was to show the affect that trying to destroy someone's life has. American officials make not blow people up or shoot them in the head but some of the things we do make as well destroy someone's life and I think that's what her video wanted to show. I definitely see it as art and thought-provoking or who you rather see pointless art like Christina Aguilera's new video?