Singer M.I.A. is not unfamiliar with having controversy surrounding her. From her first hit, “Paper Planes,” which talked about how immigrants and refugees are mistreated, to her revealing and strange outfit at the 2009 Grammys, M.I.A. frequently invites scandal into her life. Her new music video for the song “Born Free” has topped her past controversies by a mile.

Released on April 26, the video was said to have been taken down off of YouTube’s site almost immediately after its debut. YouTube said that the video breached rules that “prohibit content like pornography or gratuitous violence.” A spokesperson for YouTube also commented that the video “has been flagged by the community and identified by our policy enforcement team as content that, while not violating our community guidelines, is not suitable for users under age 18.”

“YouTube did the right thing by pulling the video. It’s highly offensive and even though it serves a message it should not be on a site that any range of ages can watch,” said senior Sammy Qabazard.

The video begins with two middle aged people naked and having sex, when all the sudden a group of officers kick in their door and start beating the man violently. The video then goes to the officers rounding up red-headed men and throwing them onto a bus where they will be taken to an internment camp. Once they get to the camp they are forced to run through a mine field and things get very graphic and very bloody.

“I think it was meant to represent a war on people based on their physical appearance which is the only real difference between people fighting in warfare. It was definitely too much. The scenes were way too graphic for a music video,” said Qabazard.

Although M.I.A. intended to have meaning behind the video, many people found themselves confused, lost, disgusted or offended

“I would say M.I.A. went way too far with this. The fact that they re-created the holocaust with red-haired people seemed almost sick. The video was a bad idea and it was too graphic and too disturbing. The violence seemed way too much for a song and overall it was scary,” said junior Julia Uglietta.

Though most people found the video highly offensive, some praised the video for having a deeper message, and one that very obviously got the point across that many people ignore genocide when it happens.

“I like the video a lot. I think it had a deeper meaning than what people interpreted it as. I did not think it went too far at all. To get attention these days you need something crazy like that,” said junior Matt Chiappane.

Whether M.I.A. hit her mark with her video or not is yet to be determined. She has not yet released a statement or made any comments about “Born Free.” So until then, audiences are left to either gasp in horror or praise her video.