Written by Jackson West
Posted Tuesday, March 6, 2007 at 12:30 PM PT

Internal YouTube Document Leaked!

We’re as frustrated as you are with YouTube’s seemingly capricious removal of clips from the site — which wreaks all kind of havoc on the embedded videos in our post archives and occasionally brings down random inoffensive posts.

While the YouTube terms of service are explicit, there is a lot of room for debate on how well they’re enforced — it seems that some clips that are obviously infringing can stay up for a while while others are pulled for no good reason. Thankfully, we’ve gotten our hands on the super-secret (and super-legit, really!) flowchart which outlines YouTube’s content policing policy once and for all.

YouTube Content Policing Procedure - Parody

You have figured out this a parody by now, right?

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Topic: Random Stuff

Comments (6)

http://digg.com/tech_news/Internal_YouTube_Document_Leaked

Marshall Kirkpatrick — 3:26 PM on March 6, 2007 Reply
Um, yes, we know it’s a parody (and a funny one). Maybe trust us to get that without going limp at the end.

Nick Douglas — 6:08 PM on March 6, 2007 Reply
Isn’t orkut’s guy a turk?

melih — 6:31 PM on March 6, 2007 Reply
Nick, let’s just say we took out the disclaimer and ran it by a few people, and … yeah. Your nose for sarcasm is more finely tuned, it seems.

Melih, we were referring to Orkut’s massive popularity in Brazil.

Liz Gannes, NewTeeVee — 6:36 PM on March 6, 2007 Reply
Dude, You had me going.

If you took out the “take a cold shower” it looks real.

I’ve been in network and studio meetings where that kind of flowchart is on the white board and everyone is taking notes.

Tim Street — 9:53 PM on March 6, 2007 Reply
As have I, Tim. I almost – almost – produced this in Visio just for another touch of realism.

Jackson West — 12:26 AM on March 7, 2007 Reply

Linkbacks (2)

[...] Jackson West has come up with a fine parody and a nice flow chart that makes fun of YouTube’s content removal policy. I wish it was April 1, 2007! Sphere Topic: The Daily | Tags: youtube [...]

GigaOM » A fine parody of YouTube video… — 10:49 PM on March 6, 2007
[...] The youngster is now liable for the crime of perjury, and ABC is busy checking with their legal team. While it’s certainly a laughable gaffe on YouTube’s part, and probably scared the crap out of users who got warnings about their accounts, I can’t imagine they’re liable in any way. But they may want to modify their mysterious takedown policy procedures. [...]

NewTeeVee » YouTube Pranked by Aussie… — 3:08 AM on April 16, 2007