Artist’s Livestream Shut Down by Ustream

An avid Clancco reader just sent us this story, via Hyperallergic.

It seems that a NY-based performance artist was playing, excuse us, performing, with a life-sized sex doll, and streaming to curious viewers via Ustream, when all of a sudden Ustream shut down transmission for what it deemed a violation of Ustream’s terms of service.

Is this censorship? Well, maybe. It certainly isn’t a violation of our First Amendment (Ustram is not a government actor). The artist, Amber Hawk Swanson, is not being told she can’t do the performance; Ustream simply doesn’t have to transmit it. In a sense, she’s left to her own devices, or those of another streamer.