The law is a very tricky topic on how it should dictate the content on the internet and in the media. I believe with traditional media like movies, and television it’s a lot more cut and dry, but when it comes to the Internet that’s where its gets less black and white and pretty muddy. One rising issue is copyright enforcement. Now that the everyday person that has a cellphone with a camera is able to upload content to the Internet, there is a lot more room for copyright enforcement and copyright takedowns. Usually on these video sharing websites, like YouTube, you have copyright claims being run by a system that isn’t being filtered by a human being. With these systems being run this way it leaves room for more error.
If we look at the article by Cory Doctorow, he gives examples of this very thing occurring. A couple of these examples would be Nasa getting blocked from posting its own Mars rover footage, classical pianists are being blocked from posting their own performances, and entire academic conferences lose their presenters audio because the hall they rented played music at the lunch break. We also learn this from Mediactive that “if a site user posted the material, the site host can avoid legal trouble by complying with the takedown notice. If whoever posted it challenges the notice, saying the material is not infringing, the content goes back up, and the copyright holder is then required to litigate if he or she wants to force the issue”. (p135)
I believe that this issue also goes hand in hand with censorship. From Doctorow we also learn that “the companies usually do not take a stand to defend user speech, and many users are too afraid to stand up for their own speech because they face bankruptcy if a court disagrees with their assessment of the law” which censors users content from what they can and cannot post, knowing that they won’t contest it.
Another instance of censorship causing an issue was on YouTube last August. Five channels [GlitterBombTV QueerKidStuff, WattstheSafeword, ChaseRoss, and BriaAndChrissy] on the platform took a stand against being discriminated against for posting non-explicit LGBTQ+ content. The claim is that YouTube has been denying ads, removing or hiding videos with tags like “gay, transgender, or bisexual” even though these videos contain no mature content. Even though YouTube claims to abide by freedom of expression and freedom of opportunity, these five channels are suing because its effecting their revenue, viewership, and advertisement ability. With Bria and Chrissy being a plaintiff in the lawsuit, they are also claiming that their videos are not being sent to subscription boxes, thumbnails are being removed, and that they also are being age-gated and age-restricted, all for being a lesbian couple.
