Zenien
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YouTube, Digg, Suppressing Free Speech
YouTube is blocking nearly all anti-Scientology content
THIS STORY HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM DIGG, click here for more info.
The removed Digg item can be found here.
12/02/2008 - We feel obliged to uncover this as it's one of the most extreme manifestations of internet-censorship we've witnessed to date.
Right after the international anti-Scientology protests of February 10th, YouTube has been blocking nearly all Scientology-related videos from getting to its 'Videos' front page. The anti-Scientology protests were one of the biggest displays of internet-activism to date, and it's saddening to see that such a massive worldwide event that normally would have dominated YouTube's entire 'Videos' front page was completely silenced and covered up by the biggest video website online, leading mainstream media and internet users to believe that the event was a total failure or didn't even take place.
For more info, check the report below, along with the list of facts.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Being YouTube power users, we know that YouTube's 'Videos' front page and other 'top' pages are not a real-time view of what's most popular but only update every 6 hours or so with a new view of what's most popular at that moment. In between those 6 hours, view counts and 'most popular' lists simply remain frozen until the next update. Most power users know that these updates happen at specific predictable intervals and that the website almost never skips a beat.
But since the worldwide Scientology protests started a few days ago, something very strange happened. YouTube videos of the raids became a huge news item on Digg and on countless other news sites. The strange thing is that all these videos had their view counts frozen for more than 48 hours. The view count is very important for a video's popularity because if it gets high enough within the first 48 hours, it will reach YouTube's 'Videos' front page, it becomes impossible to reach that page after this time. This means: freezing a video's view count keeps it from being seen by all casual YouTube visitors (more than 90% of YouTube's visitors). Of course this is something that's easily dismissed as a temporary website glitch or simply YouTube being under heavy load and updating slowly, but here this was simply not the case.
The following facts make it clear that YouTube temporarily blocked all Scientology-related content:
- YouTube has not had a huge website 'freeze' like this for years or probably, ever.
- YouTube has officially been pressured by Scientology before to remove videos.
- After the Anonymous raids, nearly all YouTube videos of the event had their view counts frozen for more than 48 hours
Almost all non-Scientology related videos had normally updated view-counts
The average YouTube video has about 100x more views than ratings. Unlike view counts, 'Video ratings' are real-time and clearly indicated that YouTube's 'Videos' front page would have been dominated by videos documenting the worldwide Scientology raids. (this zip file contains screenshots of some of these videos, showing their ratings and view counts)
Screenshots of the tip of the iceberg: some videos that should have made it to the 'Most Viewed' front page but didn't:
(click here for a high-res image of this collage / click here to download a zip of screenshots of these videos individually, showing view counts and ratings )
This article is not aimed at YouTube or Scientology, it is also not meant to promote Anonymous, it is simply aimed at informing internet users about yet another display of the decay of internet freedom.
We will keep doing this with every significant violation of net neutrality and freedom of speech on the net, in order to make a stand for internet freedom with the I Power community.
Sincerely,
The I Power team.
http://ipower.movielol.org/youtube-anon.php
YouTube is blocking nearly all anti-Scientology content
THIS STORY HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM DIGG, click here for more info.
The removed Digg item can be found here.
12/02/2008 - We feel obliged to uncover this as it's one of the most extreme manifestations of internet-censorship we've witnessed to date.
Right after the international anti-Scientology protests of February 10th, YouTube has been blocking nearly all Scientology-related videos from getting to its 'Videos' front page. The anti-Scientology protests were one of the biggest displays of internet-activism to date, and it's saddening to see that such a massive worldwide event that normally would have dominated YouTube's entire 'Videos' front page was completely silenced and covered up by the biggest video website online, leading mainstream media and internet users to believe that the event was a total failure or didn't even take place.
For more info, check the report below, along with the list of facts.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Being YouTube power users, we know that YouTube's 'Videos' front page and other 'top' pages are not a real-time view of what's most popular but only update every 6 hours or so with a new view of what's most popular at that moment. In between those 6 hours, view counts and 'most popular' lists simply remain frozen until the next update. Most power users know that these updates happen at specific predictable intervals and that the website almost never skips a beat.
But since the worldwide Scientology protests started a few days ago, something very strange happened. YouTube videos of the raids became a huge news item on Digg and on countless other news sites. The strange thing is that all these videos had their view counts frozen for more than 48 hours. The view count is very important for a video's popularity because if it gets high enough within the first 48 hours, it will reach YouTube's 'Videos' front page, it becomes impossible to reach that page after this time. This means: freezing a video's view count keeps it from being seen by all casual YouTube visitors (more than 90% of YouTube's visitors). Of course this is something that's easily dismissed as a temporary website glitch or simply YouTube being under heavy load and updating slowly, but here this was simply not the case.
The following facts make it clear that YouTube temporarily blocked all Scientology-related content:
- YouTube has not had a huge website 'freeze' like this for years or probably, ever.
- YouTube has officially been pressured by Scientology before to remove videos.
- After the Anonymous raids, nearly all YouTube videos of the event had their view counts frozen for more than 48 hours
Almost all non-Scientology related videos had normally updated view-counts
The average YouTube video has about 100x more views than ratings. Unlike view counts, 'Video ratings' are real-time and clearly indicated that YouTube's 'Videos' front page would have been dominated by videos documenting the worldwide Scientology raids. (this zip file contains screenshots of some of these videos, showing their ratings and view counts)
Screenshots of the tip of the iceberg: some videos that should have made it to the 'Most Viewed' front page but didn't:
(click here for a high-res image of this collage / click here to download a zip of screenshots of these videos individually, showing view counts and ratings )
This article is not aimed at YouTube or Scientology, it is also not meant to promote Anonymous, it is simply aimed at informing internet users about yet another display of the decay of internet freedom.
We will keep doing this with every significant violation of net neutrality and freedom of speech on the net, in order to make a stand for internet freedom with the I Power community.
Sincerely,
The I Power team.
http://ipower.movielol.org/youtube-anon.php
