TV Maven: YouTube Scientology Freeze: Coincidence or Censorship?

 

Suddenly the hottest topic on YouTube is Scientology. Some 5000 videos related to the church founded by L. Ron Hubbard have been uploaded to the video-sharing site over the past four weeks. Nearly 3000 of those have been added in the past week. Just today, Feb. 14, more than 250 new clips with “Scientology” in their tags have shown up.

 

But the content is not without controversy.

 

This guy claims that for 48 hours YouTube froze the view counts on videos criticizing Scientology, including hundreds of clips from last Sunday’s “Anonymous” protests at 250 church properties around the world.

 

My firsthand experience is that this did happen. I uploaded a 3:40 video of the Dallas protest around 4 p.m. Sunday. Within a few hours it had attracted hundreds of views and dozens of comments. But the count remained stuck on the number 761 from Sunday night to Tuesday afternoon, when it suddenly jumped to more than 3,000 views.

 

YouTube says this was a server problem: “There was an issue with video view counts not increasing that has now been resolved. The correct number of views should be displayed in the next 24 hours. Thanks for your patience.”

 

Conspiracy-lovers, such as the followers of Anonymous who took part in last Sunday’s anti-Scientology rallies, might say the coincidental freeze-ups helped keep all Scientology-related videos off YouTube’s front page. Certainly some of them would have qualified as “most-watched” on Sunday and Monday.

 

The original “Anonymous” message alone has garnered nearly 2.5 million views and has not yet been featured as a “most-watched.”

 

No similar glitches have been previously reported.

 

YouTube has been pressured by the Church of Scientology before to take down leaked footage of Tom Cruise in a church promo, and a three-hour speech by church leader David Miscavige.

 

Currently YouTube hosts more than 70 million videos and about 5 million user channels.