I’ve gotten into quite a few arguments about Scientology. Because, with a few caveats, I think adults should be able to spend their money on whatever they like and I think Scientology is a religion. As I outlined here. But now Scientology (or people acting in their name) have plumbed new depths of stupidity.
Do you remember the video of Tom Cruise (since hosted by Gawker here) that was removed from YouTube? The one that prompted global protests against Scientology?
A key point to remember here, the salient point, is that the removal of a newsworthy video sparked protest.
Well. The same thing has just happened to Mark Bunker of XenuTV fame (the guy that released the Jason Beghe video):
I didn’t photograph the last anonymous protests in London because I had bad guts and third demonstrations are less interesting than first and second demonstrations. People are usually bored by the third demonstration (see second London demonstration pics by me here).
Removing Mark Bunker’s videos is an almost guaranteed way to reinvigorate the protests and bring in even more protestors.
Heck, even I feel like protesting (rather than just taking pictures) and I don’t even feel that strongly about Scientology. As for YouTube: This is yet another example of how they’ll cave in at the first opportunity rather than give their users the respect they deserve.
Web 2.0 is about making money from the talent of your users and showing them little or no respect over profits.
If this sort of thing is tolerated it could happen to you next. Send Mark Bunker’s video, as linked above, to people. They should know.
