A little more than five months ago (or 6.29.19) I posted a Clockwork Orange piece called “Cold, Repellent, Oddly Beautiful.” One of the visual components was a video capture of the last 31 seconds of Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 masterpiece. No biggie, right? Nearly a half-century old.
Today I was advised by YouTube that “your video ‘Clockwork Finale’ was removed because it violates our sex and nudity policy.”
Really? The PG-13-ish conclusion of one of the absolute landmark films of the ’70s, directed by one of the most iconic 20th Century helmers violates their sex and nudity policy? And it took them five and a half months to notice this alleged violation?
The Dickensian fantasy sequence in question (i.e., Malcolm McDowell‘s Alex DeLarge and a young woman having if off in the snow as 19th Century London swells applaud) is mostly about suggestion. Hardly an envelope pusher.
YouTube’s message stressed that “because it’s the first time, this is just a warning. If it happens again, your channel will get a strike and you won’t be able to do things like upload, post, or live stream for 1 week. A second strike will prevent you from publishing content for 2 weeks. Three strikes in any 90-day period will result in the permanent removal of your channel.”
3:30 pm update: I tried refreshing YouTube repeatedly and was unable to access the main page for 90 minutes or so. I wrote them to say (a) seriously? and (b) if this is a warning why can’t I access YouTube? Ten minutes ago they removed the strike.
