ATWT's Luke and Noah capture the Internet zeitgest

Now here's a story that became a little happier the more I looked into it. Thanks to a tip on our forums, I learned that a YouTube clip of the kiss between Luke and Noah from Friday's As the World Turns was flagged as inappropriate. When a clip is flagged, it is restricted to registered YouTube users who give their birth date to verify that they are 18 or older. My interest was further raised when I read on a message board that "Nuke" fans were re-uploading the clip on their accounts, leaving new versions that would have to be flagged all over again making it so that anyone searching the site for a clip of Luke and Noah's first kiss would certainly be able to find it without having to register to the site to get past the flag.

The double-standard of what counts as "inappropriate" on YouTube isn't a new discovery. In January, AfterEllen wrote about how mild depictions of lesbian affection tends to get flagged on YouTube while similar scenes of heterosexual love get left alone. Meanwhile, in May, we noted a a clip with a particularly hateful anti-gay message that had gone unflagged for six months.

While the earliest clip to feature Luke and Noah's kiss remains flagged (meaning a user felt it was inappropriate and called the site's attention to it), you can find ten more clips that are currently unflagged. So far, only one duplicates the clip that was originally flagged, meaning that several different users went through the effort of converting the scene into a digital format and uploading it to be shared. However, the flagged video remains the most popular one, having over two hundred thousand views (as of this moment, at least).

I have to admit, I came into this story feeling a little cynical but seeing so much fan support for Luke and Noah, as well as a good amount of interest, has made me feel a little less negative. It's important to remember that YouTube is for the most part user-driven, and while that leads to most of its problems (the uploading of copyrighted content like this, hateful messages) it also represents an upside: our voice in these matters does not go unheard. So check out the clips, add more, and add positive comments 'til your fingers bleed. Because you know the haters are doing the same.