Serio Gets Censored by YouTube, you may have noticed that Serio’s song, Don’t Hate Me Because I’m Mexican, the first single off of his new CD, Soy Chicano Rap, due for release later this year, has been removed from YouTube. Don’t Hate Me Because I’m Mexican, was digitally released for sale in April 2012. On Cinco de Mayo, Serio posted it on YouTube for everyone to enjoy. It had been gaining popularity on YouTube and had already become the third most-viewed video of Serio’s YouTube postings.
Suddenly, on December 19, 2012, after the video had been up for over 7 months, YouTube removed it providing an email to explain the cause for its removal. What was YouTube’s reason for taking down the video? According to the email, the video “…had too many views.“ Just how many views did, Don’t Hate Me Because I’m Mexican, actually have? Close to 400,000 views. Let’s compare that to another artist’s video still posted on YouTube with over 1 billion views that he got in less than 5 months wow! That video and many others continue to remain on YouTube even though they have well over 400,000 views. Interesting, isn’t it? Many mainstream rap artist video views range from 1 million to 100 million views! In fact, Serio, himself, has videos currently posted on YouTube with over 1 million views each including, In L.A. and Baby I Love You.
Serio Controla Records attempted to dispute the issue with YouTube by contacting them immediately. They refused to respond with a valid or fair reason for removing the video. Following that, we attempted to contact Google’s legal department, as Google owns YouTube, but after several weeks no response was received. Finally, we contacted our attorneys to explore the possibility of legally disputing the removal of the video on the grounds that its removal violates First Amendment rights to freedom of speech. We were informed by our legal department that nothing could be done because YouTube and similar companies have “Terms of Use” guidelines stating that they reserve the right to choose what will and will not be posted to their websites. It’s good to know that, if they choose to, YouTube practices a form of censorship.
Fortunately, we have our own website,
SERIO. So, in response to its unfair removal from YouTube, we have uploaded the video, Don’t Hate Me Because I’m Mexican. Please see the video below. This video should work on all devices. If you have trouble, you can download it for free as this often fixes any viewing issues. As always, Serio thanks you for your continued support and asks that you help us take a stand against censorship by spreading the word of this recent news.