YouTube; A Good Intermediary

All too often, we are constantly subjected to the powers of internet intermediaries, leaving us confused and frustrated.  So many copyright laws, fair use controversies, and ethical controversy frequently blur and smear the lines of creativity/usefulness and legalities on the web.  However, when these intermediaries act in ways of sharing, like wikis, and useful platforms don't abuse their authority and monitor what exactly is free to post and what is not, we find these sites all entirely useful in ways of spreading knowledge and creativity throughout the world.  

On a recent YouTube video post, Students for A Free Tibet posted a video portraying one of their protests at the Chinese consulate in New York.  The video included content relating to the Beijing Olympics and opinion against China's human rights record.  Obviously upset, the International Olympic Committee filed a takedown of the video, and soon enough it was ultimately removed.

Later, after reviewing more about why the content was removed, YouTube questioned the Olympic Committee, asking them if they actually planned on pursuing the claim behind this video.  If the Committee wasn't planning on further investigations, YouTube requested that they take down the notice/request of the takedown.  Soon enough, the video was reposted. 

Incidences like this show that sharing platforms not only exercise their rights to take down unwanted videos/information but also are doing things to help promote the better things for the people.  In this case, YouTube used the the power of free speech and fair use in defense of the public, which was pretty cool.  However, it should be taken into consideration the exact motives of YouTube to keep videos like this up on the internet.  It may be because of some advertising or video count, who knows...  Hopefully, YouTube did something to support internet sharing databases.