Young Lady Playing With A Balloon
Date: 2007
Region: North America
Subject: Other
Medium: Film Video
Artist: Henry Butz
Confronting Bodies: The YouTube Team
Dates of Action: Tuesday, February 6th, 2007 3:21pm EDT
Location: YouTube.com
Description of Artwork: Two minute video of a young lady in a slip playing with a blue 36 inch balloon in a studio. She sits on the balloon, bounces it, and eventually pops the balloon with a steak knife.
The Incident: YouTube hosts user submitted videos. The video in question was submitted to the website and received rave reviews from subscribers. It was viewed close to 2,000 times in a one day period and was in the top-20 favorites for the day. An email was received from YouTube which said, "After being flagged by members of the YouTube community and reviewed by YouTube staff, the video below has been removed due to its inappropriate nature." It should be noted that the video contained no nudity, no sexual content, and no harsh language. It is a video of a young lady playing with a balloon.
Results of Incident: No recourse or avenue of appeal was offered. No explanation was given for the decision. The video was simply removed from public view.
Source: First-hand account with witness