We don’t know that. As per the webpage, this could’ve been uploaded directly from the Photos app on an iPhone, by people who didn’t really understand the consequences. Maybe they uploaded it and thought they’d get a private link to share with one specific person. Most people are not tech savvy and don’t fully understand the possible ramifications of their sharing.
Yeah I just got a video of an infant taking a bath. I have small kids my self so nothing new, but not something I would want on the internet for everyone to see. And I doubt that the mom, and now the teenager who was the kid, would want broadcast everywhere.
The entire point of this webpage (and the article that inspired it) was to wonder and suggest that many of the people posting these things may not have realized they were posting it publicly, thinking that "Post to YouTube" meant that they were putting it somewhere online where it would be easier to -- privately -- share with specific people they wanted to share it with.
Given the time frame and the newness of the iPhone and that entire model of interacting with media and the internet, I think it's pretty likely that many of those videos were published without the understanding that anyone would be able to view them.
Regardless of my guess on this, you can't assume to know what anyone's intent is, especially someone you don't know who posted something on the internet over a decade ago.
The world was a lot different 15 years ago, both YouTube and iPhones were new and not full understood by the average person. Anyone who has designed a UI knows that not all actions are explicit.
In addition to the other replies, I've seen a few videos that we obviously created by very young children playing with a relatives phone. I can't easily imagine an informed adult choosing to send these nonsense random videos to YouTube but i can easily imagine a 5 year old poking around and just following the prompts. Some had 0 views as well so likely no one knows these were uploaded at all
More likely: uploaded with the intent that a very limited audience would see it, thinking it would drown in the pool of videos uploaded to YouTube or maybe not even aware that other people could stumble upon it.
I wonder what percentage of iPhone users in 2009 knew what "upload to YouTube" means. I doubt that there was a huge alert disclosing that this makes video publicly available.
very explicitly uploaded with the intent that others would see it