YouTube has taken down the video you want to watch – a virtually inevitable occurrence, given the site’s automatic response to claims of copyright infringement. Instead of showing you the clip you chose, YouTube wants to ease your disappointment by entertaining you with a classy animated graphic.
Instead of looking at a plain black image, a red YouTube smiley face, and white text telling you why you can’t watch the footage you chose, disappointed YouTube users can read the takedown notice over moving static reminiscent of an old-fashioned TV screen with a broken antenna.
This quaint throwback to a time before the Internet was the idea of “an intern at YouTube,” YouTube spokesperson Matt McLernon said. It was done “as an homage to the days of TV snow.”
The image has been in place for weeks, and only appears on videos that have been removed after they’ve been embedded elsewhere, either on a website or a social media site like Twitter.
