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If YouTube didn't have you agree to TOS before uploading a video, you may have a point here. In it's current state though, YouTube has carte-blanche permission to remove anything they want, not just disagreeable content. The concept of free speech does not give you the ability to renegotiate service agreements, unfortunately.

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My point is that in some cases, the DMCA appears to require OSPs (YouTube, in this case) to restore content that has been the subject of a DMCA takedown.

I don't see how that is compatible with the idea that YouTube has the right to not host content on their website. It's their website. How can a counter-notification take away - even for an instant - YouTube's right to control what's on YouTube?

They can certainly demand it, but there's no recourse if Google simply says they don't want to host it. Nobody is guaranteed a spot on YouTube by the first amendment, and DMCA doesn't override the pre-existing precedents of contract law. If they truly demand a restoration of removed content, then they are free to do so with servers that they pay for.

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