Today, Google rolled out a new flavor of YouTube, addressing especially the Australian users which are now capable to access and publish clips on their own version of the video
sharing service. Just like the other versions of YouTube, the Australian one comes with translated interface and other elements which bring the local partners' content on the main page.
Although the release of the Australian YouTube is pretty important, another piece of news managed to attract everyone's attention: the Mountain View company wants special laws for its video sharing service, ABC News reports today. It seems like Google's representatives stated that YouTube should be treated differently to other traditional media services because the users are the ones who bring content on its page.
"I don't think YouTube is a broadcaster, so I think that's something... we have to clarify. We think the value proposition for platforms like YouTube is that everybody gets a voice, so we want to be able to give the common person, the user, regular person on the road a voice. If anything we want free speech to be preserved, and that voice to be preserved because it's a very very powerful voice," Sakina Arsiwala said according to ABC News.
However, it seems like the Federal Government is currently investigating the matter and will announce soon if it has anything to do with the content published on YouTube.
The matter of the videos appearing on YouTube is pretty important for most of the countries in which the video sharing service evolves because some authorities might consider a certain type of video infringing for its laws. Take the example of Thailand, a country that blocked Google's video sharing technology for several months because the users uploaded offensive clips on its page. Please note that YouTube refused to remove the videos because they were not infringing the internal guidelines.