There are so many elements to how voting and internal promoting is done on social media sites, like YouTube, Digg, Propeller, Reddit and so on, that I couldn’t begin to comprehend how it all works.

This, however, does not mean there isn’t something strangely coincidental about certain videos being removed from YouTube. As I understand, videos are promoted and pushed to the front page based on views and a voting/rating system.

A few weeks back, the internet activist group calling themselves “Anonymous” released a video on YouTube in response to the infamous Gawker/Tom Cruise Scientology video showdown.

Initially, YouTube pulled the clip featuring popular actor and Scientology spokesperson Tom Cruise who was featured in a video that was intended to be shown in Scientology centers exclusively. The CoS lawyers served YouTube with a cease and desist letter, and the video was subsequently pulled from the site.

Gawker, on the other hand, ignored the letter from Scientology and continues to host the video on their site.

After this public flap, Anonymous released their own video in essence airing their grievances with CoS and stating their intentions to “dismantle” the organization for its various alleged abuses, number one being a systematic suppression of free speech.

Since this first video appeared, there have been several tit for tat videos and copycats popping up all over YouTube, but with the original one titled “Message to Scientology” receiving over 2 million views.

Now, the current issue is that video has been removed completely from the site (though several anonymous members have posted mirror versions of the video since, in their own effort to stop what they deem as heavy-handed attempt to suppress not only the video, but free speech.)

Yesterday, YouTube released a statement regarding the stalled voting and rating on these videos were due to a programming glitched rather than some internal effort on their part. But since then, it seems videos have been popping up and subsequently disappearing left and right, which would indicate a much more direct involvement by YouTube rather than a bug in their algorithms.

YouTube statement:

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.

The top video is from ex-Scientologist and outspoken critic Tory Magoo discussing the CoS efforts to suppress free speech.

Here is the link to the original Anonymous video with have over 2 million views. It has been removed as you can see.

In all fairness, the video is still available on YouTube, as it continues to be uploaded by other members in response to the removal. Below is a mirror of the original video:

At this point, I don’t know what terms the original video violated. If anyone is aware, please feel free to post in the comments sections if there are any official statements from YouTube. This is a story in progress, so bear with me for my brief summary of events.