UPDATE: YouTube has confirmed the removal was a mistake. For more information and a comment from Rick Astley"s manager please see our follow up story.
The Interwebs came together in a collective gasp on Wednesday as it was discovered that YouTube removed the original "Rickroll" video that has clocked up 30 million views to date.
For those not familiar with the term "Rickroll" or "Rickrolling", it"s a famous Internet meme involving the music video for the 1987 Rick Astley song "Never Gonna Give You Up". The phenomenon began at Internet image board 4chan and soon spread more widely. Internet users typically send the URL of the video to another user and the practice results in the person being "Rickrolled".
The original video can usually be found here, but currently it displays "This video has been removed due to terms of use violation." Google and YouTube spokespeople were not immediately available for comment.
Thanks to GeekAdos for the news tip