Justin Bieber's “Baby” in YouTube jeopardy, America freaks out - Washington Post (blog)

<div id="entrytext" readability="72.1138211382"> <p>The <b>Justin Bieber</b> rumor du jour: Sinister forces are conspiring to yank his beloved "Baby" video from YouTube. </p> <p>According to the always reliable blogosphere, "Baby" will be pulled from the site not because of the sort of legal issues that briefly ended Rebecca Black's reign of YouTube terror, or because of the wrath of a vengeful God, but because the clip, which has as of this writing been viewed 583,492,017 times (it is the most viewed video in YouTube history), has also garnered over 1.5 million "dislikes." According to Bieber alarmists, this is enough to trip YouTube's "Universal Revulsion" algorithim (that's not really what it's called. But wouldn't it be great if that was what it was called?) and trigger the video's expulsion. </p> <p>This theory, of course, is not true. YouTube doesn't take down videos simply because a large number of viewers don't like them. Copyright issues or whether the video meets the company's social guidelines are more likely reasons to get a video yanked. ("Don't worry!" YouTube tweeted on Monday. "Baby is still here"). Still, an enraged army of tweens, afraid of seeing "Baby" get "Friday"-ed (though "Friday" was taken down at Black's request) sprung into action anyway. Petitions were circulated. Signatures were collected. Tweets were tweeted. #Dontdeletebaby became a trending topic on Twitter. </p> <p>Some of the more awesome/crazy reactions: </p> <p>Fom DABieber Smile: "Dear Youtube, #dontdeletebaby 'cause you will became un-popular. Trust me, I know how it feels. Sincerely, Myspace." </p> <p>From ktluvsthebieb: "#dontdeletebaby or i will literally drop dead"</p> <p>From JBiebsonreplay: Dear Youtube, Roses are red, Violets are blue. If you delete BABY, over 10 MILLION girls will dislike you. #DontDeleteBaby </p> <p> Bieber himself, usually an inveterate tweeter, has not yet weighed in.</p></div><p>???initialComments:true! pubdate:07/11/2011 17:29 EDT! commentPeriod:3! commentEndDate:7/14/11 5:29 EDT! currentDate:7/12/11 12:2 EDT! allowComments:true! displayComments:false!</p>