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YouTube Removes Legendary Meme Video After 14 Years for 'Violence' (vice.com) 92

An anonymous reader shares a report: You probably don't know Paul Weedon by name, but you've probably seen him get punched in the face. He is the man behind the "I can't believe you've done this" meme, an old, viral video in which he talks to the camera for a few seconds before someone off camera sucker-punches him mid-sentence. It's a canonical internet video that has spread far and wide since Weedon uploaded it to YouTube 14 years ago, and for reasons that he doesn't understand, yesterday YouTube decided to remove it, citing its violence policies. Weedon has tried appealing YouTube's decision, but the company denied his request.

"I got an email from YouTube late last night informing me that it had been taken down because it had violated their 'violent or graphic content' policy, which seemed a bit mad after all this time,â Weedon told Motherboard. "I'd maybe understand it if the video was new, but it's been on YouTube for over a decade. At that point you'd have thought they'd have flagged that there was an issue with it and dealt with it." Weedon said he has no idea why the video was removed now, but he's not worried about it disappearing from the internet.

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YouTube Removes Legendary Meme Video After 14 Years for 'Violence'

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  • by Synonymous Cowered ( 6159202 ) on Thursday September 30, 2021 @10:29AM (#61847903)

    Slashdot...providing outdated news, as usual. The video was already reinstated yesterday

    • I should also add...surprisingly I had never even heard about this before today. But I just watched it...he does NOT get punched in the face. Watch it in slow motion. It's an open hand that comes in from behind and pushes the back of his head. It's not a fist, and nothing ever touches the front or side of his head. Fake...just like pretty much every other meme video of this variety and everything on tik tok

      • by edis ( 266347 )

        Shut up. The whole purpose, and the very meaning of this take is in the punching of some dude.
        Nothing more. Pure violence, and speculation of that.
        Good job, YouTube, we celebrate you!

      • by cusco ( 717999 )

        On the other hand the video of Buzz Aldrin punching moon landing denier Bart Sibrel is still up (as it should be.)

    • by argStyopa ( 232550 ) on Thursday September 30, 2021 @11:37AM (#61848157) Journal

      I think it's still fairly newsworthy that YT is constantly changing the rules and perfectly willing to retcon what they formerly accepted based on whatever is the woke meme of the day.

      • Agreed, YouTube has a set of draconian censorship policies in which normal users have no recourse.

        It's only when it rises above middle management does action take place to correct a mistake on their YouTube's behalf.

        It's also very similar to FaceBook jail where content is being reviewed and re-reviewed on a consistent basis. This ends up hilariously, in some cases, causing people to get "Facebook-jailed" for the same post, then appealed, and then "Facebook-jailed" again, over and over and over.

      • Moving the goal posts..I've seen this kind of shit all the time in IRL, and eventually even the most 'faithful follower' stops respecting the rules.

          People need to fuck off with the ever changing rules game, and I suspect what I had witnessed throughout tbe years was a combination of extreme narcassism and mental illness on the part of the rule makers.

      • Which is the say being aware of civil rights issues? This wasn't the civil Rights issue this was somebody at YouTube concerned that the video encouraged random acts of violence. If you're a young dumb kid and you see a video like that with millions of views it might be tempting to have your buddies record a random person and pop them one to see if you can be the next guy who goes viral on YouTube. That was the concern.

        Basically YouTube is worried about becoming jackass. And a certain extent they already
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • For a kinder, gentler, internet where people throw feathers at each other.

  • by slack_justyb ( 862874 ) on Thursday September 30, 2021 @10:32AM (#61847919)

    Per the usual policy of Google, they reversed it soon after. [theverge.com] The time honored tradition of not making their fucking minds up continues.

    • The resulting publicity will doubtlessly result in tons of extra views, and Google wouldn't want to miss out on all those extra ad impressions.

      If I believed that they were even remotely competent, I might accuse them of orchestrating the whole kerfuffle.

    • I have read many stories about Google arbitrarily suspending people's email accounts, and other google services, without any warning. These users were left high-and-dry, and couldn't get through to any human beings at Google to even find out why.

      Something similar happened to a company I worked for a while back. I cannot give details but Google's algorithms screwed up and victimized their business and caused damage, and it took a few days before the company managed to get through to anybody and clear thing

    • Per the usual policy of Google, they reversed it soon after. [theverge.com] The time honored tradition of not making their fucking minds up continues.

      At times like this it's important to remember that Google isn't some monolithic entity but a collection of individual employees (and AIs).

      Most likely, a low level content reviewer saw the video, decided it violated the guidelines, and removed it. Enough people protested that a higher level reviewer re-checked the video, came to a different conclusion (possibly motivated by the backlash) and), and reversed the decision.

      There's always going to be border-line content and I'm not sure how any large site with us

  • by sinij ( 911942 ) on Thursday September 30, 2021 @10:36AM (#61847933)
    The 'take offense at anything' culture has its roots in puritan prudishness. The same type of people that used to police the minimum skirt length are now policing memes for cultural sensitivity.
    • Nope. Left has the orgies. We just don't get off on (nonconsensual) violence.

    • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 30, 2021 @10:43AM (#61847967)
      I do find it interesting that "The 'take offense at anything' culture" in the 80's and 90's was from the Right. Now it's from the Left.
      • I do find it interesting that "The 'take offense at anything' culture" in the 80's and 90's was from the Right. Now it's from the Left.

        In-between there were a lot of deaths at the hands of Law Enforcement. Still needs to be addressed.

      • >I do find it interesting that "The 'take offense at anything' culture" in the 80's and 90's was from the Right. Now it's from the Left.

        I get the impression they're still at it just as much The right taking offense and the left complaining about it.

        Maybe the difference today is the right has upped its complaining and the left has upped its taking offense.

        Or is it all the same and today there's more people with a microphone and less inhibition.

        • That does not track with my recollections of the religious right’s reaction to being told morality was now immoral, and that they were horrible people for still having faith and proven values. In other words, they were only “offended” by being under direct assault. Like having tax dollars awarded to someone for dropping a cross in a jar of urine for the sole purpose of offending Christians. The modern Left claims offense as a weapon to silence opposition to extremist demands. The Right
          • > The modern Left claims offense as a weapon to silence opposition to extremist demands. The Right is offended by extremist demands.

            The modern left claims offense to stop the claimed offense, extremism, whatever, the modern right does too. They both also complain about it, a lot. Is it more than it was. I'm not sure it is. How many cases, their 'real' severity, how many reports, their intensity, their broadcast scope.

            Maybe framing things with left and right tags makes it harder to see what's going on.

      • by sinij ( 911942 )

        I do find it interesting that "The 'take offense at anything' culture" in the 80's and 90's was from the Right. Now it's from the Left.

        I know, how strange. I think this has something to do with dominant culture. Reagan era was peak conservatism, now we have peak progressiveness.

    • Someone once pointed out that the extreme of the political system join up. Go far enough left, and you'll find a right wing totalitarian. Go far enough right, and wind up with pure socialism.

      Both extremes want to tell other people how to live their lives. It's no surprise that today's woke leftists are all for censorship, even though their predecessors were fighting *against* authority.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Most notably the pandemic, but your first response here was to blame the left for pulling down the video when it has absolutely nothing to do with anyone being offended. The video was pulled because YouTube was concerned it encouraged random acts of violence.

      And you know what, they're right. As a young dumb kid you see a video like this with millions of views and you think "maybe if I pop somebody on camera I can go viral too". That's what YouTube is concerned about. It's a valid concern, and rather tha
    • Both are essentially the same kind of human garbage. Both are in it for the power to tell you what you can or cannot say, do or even think.

      Extremes are always authoritarian. Left or right. By definition.

      • Maybe more in practice or from need than by definition. Extreme positions are extreme instead of common because the vast majority reject them. Enforcing or maintaining system most don’t like requires considerable authority and force.
  • ... it says a lot about the kind of bed wetting snowflakes they're hiring to populate their compliancy department. An AI may well have flagged it up but a human makes the final decision.

    Perhaps its a company policy or perhaps just symptomatic of a rather wet, sheltered generation now reaching adulthood.

    • An AI may well have flagged it up but a human makes the final decision.

      That's not true. 99% of the time an AI is all that is involved. Most often because enough people clicked the report button.

    • by Ksevio ( 865461 )

      More likely an AI or report flagged it and some poor person in a 3rd world country viewed it and saw violence which fit their rough guidelines so they removed it

  • Just for the irony of it and promoted Weedon's meme and YT at the same time. Priceless.
  • 0's will b banned because they remind u Of your state Of being. 1's will be banned because they r beyOnd your imaginatiOn.

  • What both YouTube and NFL reffing lack, and are in desperate need of.
  • Turns out Boomers and SJWs have a lot in common.

    • by cusco ( 717999 )

      So which group does the AI that banned the video belong to? Must be SJWs, since very few AIs are more than a decade old.

    • "Everybody should be like me, think like me and share my opinion, then the world would be a much nicer place! Let's enforce this!"

      Works for boomers, SJWs and other religious nuts.

  • But I'm sure 15 yo boys around the world are devastated.

  • No point complaining about it now.

    YouTube will decide what's appropriate for you to see, thank you very much. If they say that something is "violence", then too bad. Doesn't matter if you think otherwise.

    • Well, at least there was actual violence this time, not some adult baby claiming that words are violence.
  • by NewtonsLaw ( 409638 ) on Thursday September 30, 2021 @12:05PM (#61848263)

    YouTube burns a lot of books, whether by intent or incompetence.

    By this I mean that a lot of content and even whole channels get deleted as a result of its lunatic systems and policies. By doing this, YouTube actually tries to shape perception which is the very thing they claim they're trying to avoid (by cancelling anti-vaxers and flat-earthers).

    I seem to recall that a few hundred years ago, a guy called Gallileo was canceled by the Roman Catholic Church for daring to suggest that the sun (and not the earth) was at the center of the solar system. Such "fake news" could not be allowed so his work was banned.

    Now while I'm not an anti-vaxer, flat earther or any other kind of "fly in the face of contemporary science" kind of guy, I do believe that *everyone* should have a right to their opinions and we ought not be burning books simply because we do not agree with their content.

    Google has gone from "don't be evil" to "we are evil incarnate".

    So sad how mone/power corrupts.

    • The difference is maybe that the RCC had governments backing its monopoly claim. Care to point to the country that tries to ensure YouTube is the only place where you can publish your videos?

  • I have no fucking idea what this video is or what's going on here, hmm cocaine. My gods imagine a world wide hysteria of a video being taken down.

  • by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Thursday September 30, 2021 @01:19PM (#61848557)

    The ancient ones here will remember a time before the years started with 20, when cable TV was new. And it was exciting. They dared to do stuff that we've never before seen on the old, dusty, established channels. New shows. Exciting, daring attempts at new entertainment. Not snorefest "sitcoms" llike the Cosby Show that was a perfect family with perfect kids, Fox gave us The Simpsons with a misfit child and a dumbass dad.

    Yes, kids, back then this was really something. You don't even want to know what ruckus South Park caused.

    But given time, they stopped to dare. Because now that they got the viewers, they realized that they want to make money. And that meant that they have to appease the advertisers. And advertisers don't want to advertise with "controversial" content. They don't want their brands to be associated with social commentary and violence. Or anything else that people actually find interesting.

    So cable became the same snorefest that the established OTA channels were.

    But that didn't matter much to us. We got YouTube. Now, take that text up there, replace "cable" with YouTube and established channels with cable, and you get exactly the same. Just about 2 decades later.

    In other words. Thank you YouTube for being there when cable became boring. But it's time to replace you with something that dares to be intersting.

    In other words: NEXT!

  • If it looks like violence, and acts like violence then it probably is violence. It sure looks like it to me and apparently that is against the rules, presumable if it was fake (acting) it wouldn't be.

    Rules are rules, should it matter that it has been around for years and he is apparently internet famous? That sounds like creeping celebrity diva-ism to me.

    Why did somebody punch him in the first place?

    • ... looks like violence ...

      Being a victim on-camera now qualifies as 'violent', good to know.

      I despise this need to pretend that adults aren't tribal, xenophobic, moralizing hypocrites. No surprise that teenagers rarely respect their elders.

      ... somebody punch him in the first place?

      A good question that your pro-censorship attitude will ensure is never asked.

  • Legendary undeserving exceptionalism.

  • Even old road-runner+ coyote cartoons were considered too violent by modern standards for kids. Old ways of doing things doesn't justify continued use when morays and sensibilities changes. Think of how colorful names of various ethnicities and races are now considered poor taste, derogatory, racist or sexist.

    Old standards of acceptability have to change or society cannot progress.

    Remember various societies have thought slavery, selling females and paying for education with homosexuality were fine "in th

    • They're just pissed that they got caricatured by the show as looking like disfigured creatures with bad teeth and huge ears.

    • Do not throw the baby out with the bath water. Just because something is old does not mean it is not better.
  • youtube can't be obsoleted fast enough.

  • "On September 29th, The Verge[8] reported on the removal of the video, with Weedon providing additional comments in an interview with the publication. Users online also reacted with backlash after the video's removal, citing that it was a ludicrous decision. One such example was tweeted by Twitter[10] user @tristandross, who said "this is like if someone at the louvre decided on a whim to throw the mona lisa in a skip."

    Late in the day on September 29th, YouTube ultimately restored the video, stating that re

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