YouTomb: Peeking Behind the Curtain of YouTube Take-Downs

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YouTomb: Peeking Behind the Curtain of YouTube Take-Downs

For the past few months, MIT and Harvard Free Culture have been collaborating on YouTomb, a project which provides a revealing, dynamically updated picture of the opaque system of takedowns and censorship for videos on YouTube. This event will provide a forum to demo the project, present some of the patterns emerging from the data being collected, and initiate discussion about possible future directions and uses for the YouTomb project.

1. What are the patterns emerging from the YouTomb data? How does YouTube censorship seem to vary across national boundaries?

2. Is YouTomb a useful instrument for research, or would it be better served as a tool for promoting public awareness of these issues?

3. What should the future direction of the YouTomb project be? Are there any potential areas of research or activism that might be assisted by this information being collected here?