YouTube bans ad for porn website aimed at disabled people

The makers of an online commercial advertising Come4 – a not-for-profit website promising "a new vision of sex" – have expressed disappointment after it was withdrawn from YouTube because the video-hosting site judged that its content violated its "terms of service".

The provocative film – which is still viewable on Vimeo – opens with an unseen narrator relating an early episode of unrequited love before going on to talk about his experiences with prostitutes. As the imagery becomes increasingly explicit, the mystery voice describes visiting brothels with his father and reveals that together they take time to choose the "right one" and explains that he "loved his first time so much, he decided to come back with his friends".

This frank series of admissions is being provided by disability rights campaigner Asta Philpot, who is describing a trip he made to a Spanish brothel with a group of disabled virgins – the subject of a 2007 documentary broadcast by the BBC.

Philpot, who was born with arthrogryposis, a condition that places severe restrictions upon his movement, argues that disabled people have as much right to a sex life as anyone else and says that if they have to pay to have "an intimate experience with another human being, then that's fair enough".

He describes YouTube's decision as "pretty disgusting" and feels that if they'd seen "beyond the naked breasts" and recognised the message behind the film, they'd have realised that "it's actually ethical. A friend of mine died without ever having a [sexual] experience and I don't ever want to let that happen again."

Philpot says he has no illusions about the problems of human trafficking and criminality that beset the sex industry, but feels that greater openness and legalisation are the answer: "If it was cleaned up, women wouldn't be forced into it because it would be properly governed."

Alasdhair Macgregor Hastie – chief creative officer at Being/TBWA in France, the advertising agency behind the commercial – believes that YouTube "are paranoid about showing anything that could possibly instigate negative press", and says that "nudity immediately sets their lawyers' teeth on edge".

But he adds that he hopes "they'll look at the film properly … recognise that it's a subject that needs talking about and put it back up again".

The commercial's director, Jeppe Rønde, became involved in this project because he believes it's important to persuade people to talk more openly about these issues and is hopeful that YouTube's ban may widen the debate.

The democratising nature of human sexuality appeals to the Danish director. "We can all have a fantasy and it can be a provocative fantasy," Rønde says.

So when it's revealed in the commercial that we're hearing Asta Philpot's fantasy, he hopes people will think: "Why shouldn't he be allowed to have his fantasy?"

A YouTube spokesperson said the company "has community guidelines which govern what content is acceptable to post on the site. When people see content that they think is inappropriate they can flag it and it is reviewed by our staff. If the content breaks our guidelines, we remove it."