Just the other day we reported on the new commercial for the Kindle Paperwhite, a humorous spot incorporating a gay man, a straight woman and their respective partners.
Well, a Queerty reader tipped us off this morning that YouTube has removed the ad for Amazon’s e-reader because of a “violation of YouTube’s policy against spam, scams and commercially deceptive content.”
He wrote, “I checked the link, and confirmed that was what happened: no video, but a notice that it had been removed.”
The ad (above)—which shows a man and a woman discussing the merits of the Paperwhite before panning to their male partners—was posted by Kindle, so it seems odd it was flagged for being spam.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
But the clip, which has been viewed by more than 308,000 people generated a flood of comments—including some seriously homophobic tripe. “A child being raised by their opposite gender will act different than one raised by the same, long-term anyway,” said one genius. “Who wants to explain to their child why a man is fucking another man, let alone married to one, simply over a kindle ad,” posted another who claims he doesn’t hate gays at all. “People need to keep their alternative lifestyle to themselves.”
Our tipster posits that enough of the homophobes unjustly flagged the ad as inappropriate to get it taken down, as we agree.
Here’s a note from YouTube’s community guidelines:
YouTube staff review flagged videos 24 hours a day, seven days a week to determine whether they violate our Community Guidelines. When they do, we remove them. Sometimes a video doesn’t violate our Community Guidelines, but may not be appropriate for everyone. These videos may be age-restricted.
Fortunately, by this afternoon the ad was back on the site.
Look, given the sheer volume of content uploaded to YouTube, there’s really no way to stop haters from flagging perfectly acceptable videos. What we can do, is let YouTube know when a clip has been wrongly targeted.
We can also ask YouTube to ban users who repeatedly abuse the flagging option. (Maybe GLAAD could head this up?)
And lastly we can turn the tables and flag clips of homophobes spewing their hate—because that shit truly is against YouTube policy.
“Hate speech” refers to content that promotes hatred against members of a protected group. For instance, racist or sexist content may be considered hate speech. Sometimes there is a fine line between what is and what is not considered hate speech. For instance, it is generally okay to criticize a nation, but not okay to make insulting generalizations about people of a particular nationality.
Below, a video explaining what is and isn’t kosher on the world’s largest video-sharing site.
yaoming
cute
avesraggiana
Eeeeek!!!!! It’s so cute!!!
avesraggiana
Orange shorts above the knee, unlike the below-the-knee -unflattering-frocks straight boys like to wear, Gay.
Built up leg muscles, unlike the skinny, shapeless legs hanging below torsos of straight white boys, because they’re too busy working out their chest and arms, Gay.
Perfect tan, Gay.
Charles175
Fundamentalists are highly pissed that we are gaining on equality. If either DOMA or prop 8 or both get defeated, across America these nut-jobs will go literally berserk. These and those like them have either implied, or in one case that I know of, actually stated that a (religious?) civil war would commence as a result. These Fundamentalist “good Christian” folks are real sore losers like unto the old saying: “what beats four aces? A Smith and Wesson.”
Surg
I agree with the second quoted comment I mean common!!! ALSO!!!
“Who wants to explain to their child why a man is fucking a woman, let alone married to one, simply over an ad they’ll see in Movies, Cartoons! Magazines! Books! Their teachers wedding pictures! And all around their everyday life! Ban heterosexual marriage guys!! Please! I don’t want to one day have to explain to my child why a woman and a man are married and fucking each other! But don’t get me wrong i don’t hate heterosexuals!
Children aren’t born knowing a woman is supposed to marry a man! That’s taught to them, and most are tought to hate anyone who’s different, when all you have to do is say, ” look honey, two men, or two woman, or a man and a woman can love equally. And you’ll never have to retouch on the subject! Simple as that.
2eo
@Charles175: They’re inbred, they have guns and they’ve shown they will murder their own countryfolk by the hundred.
The religious right acts like and is organising itself EXACTLY like Al-Qaeda. They are THE MOST DANGEROUS group currently in the western hemisophere.
Cam
@Surg: LOL!!!! Nice!
balehead
“I’m doing it for the children”….They always say that!…
balehead
How to I explain this ad to my children????….Probably the same way you explain why “Daddy isn’t hurting Mommy in the bedroom”…..
erasure25
Who wants to explain why dad is fucking mom. Hetero or homo, either way, its equally disgusting to a child to think about their parents fucking.
erasure25
Also, I always wonder why homophobes immediately start picturing a gay couple having sex when they meet such a couple. It must represent some sort of unspoken desire on their part
. When I meet straight couples I certainly do not picture them having sex as a first reaction.
Nicholas
“which shows a man and a woman discussing the merits of the Paperwhite before panning to their MALE PARTNERS” What the hell? Is this Queerty or the AP? The ad specified “husbands” (which, in fact, would have triggered “husbands” even by the AP’s dumb, recently-rejected double-standard). If Queerty can’t be respectful of the terminology we choose to describe out most intimate relationships, then who will?
Erica
Very cute commercial, as soon as I saw it, I imagined the hatred that would ensue. I thought it was an amazing step, specifically the use of the word,”husband”.