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Why You Should Quit YouTube - Part 9: Name Your Poison



Series parts:

  1. New Series: Why People Everywhere Should Quit YouTube
  2. YouTube's New Management: Time's Up, Start Paying and Watch Ads, Don't Use Free Software
  3. Why You Should Quit YouTube - Part 3: Google Exploits Creators, It'll Get Even Worse
  4. Why You Should Quit YouTube - Part 4: Financial Crunch Time
  5. Why You Should Quit YouTube - Part 5: The Real Enemy Has Become Sanity of Users
  6. Why You Should Quit YouTube - Part 6: The 'Audiences' as the Enemies of YouTube
  7. Why You Should Quit YouTube - Part 7: The 'Creators' as the Enemies of YouTube
  8. Why You Should Quit YouTube - Part 8: YouTube, Google, and Alphabet as the West's Political Opportunists and Enemies of Public Health
  9. YOU ARE HERE ☞ Name Your Poison


Summary Poisonous video hosting (and sharing) platforms need to be avoided; YouTube is fast becoming one of the least desirable options, for reasons covered thus far in this week-long series

MY INTENTION with this part is to give a short summary and outline, then offer some personal conclusions, reinforced by more recent events. The parts above stand on their own and are suitably partitioned based on themes or issues.

The previous part cautioned that YouTube is becoming another Fentanylware (TikTok) -- albeit one controlled primarily by the US. Like Twitter back in the days, YouTube had humble beginnings, but it is becoming more sinister over time. The malignant effect is due to technical changes, legal/policy changes, and the underlying content.

Over a decade ago I used to upload 'backup' copies of videos from Techrights, putting most of them in YouTube just in case someone may want them there or find them there. I stopped doing that about a decade ago.

YouTube isn't the same anymore and recent management shuffles mean we should expect the worst to be ahead, not behind.

Last night an associate of ours joked about stuff like Fentanylware (TikTok), a digital weapon built, maintained, and operated by Bytedance, which is not a social control media company but a surveillance giant:

regarding phones in schools: 1) should kids be allowed to bring weapons to school? 2) should kids be allowed to bring unusual weapons to school? 3) should kids be allowed to bring small weapons to school? 4) what if the weapon fits on a phone?


That sums up a growing problem. As we showed yesterday, based on news from the same day, those "apps" are commendeering young people like a flock of zombies. This isn't something "natural". It's not an inevitability either.

Prior to yesterday we covered the downsides of using YouTube, either as a mere spectator (watching videos, maybe commenting on some) or a "creator" (someone who uploads videos). There are plenty of downsides, more than most people care to acknowledge, and over time that list of downsides gets longer and longer.

The conclusion is that people need to take control of their platform. Stop outsourcing. It may seem 'cheap', but you always pay a lot later. There's that old saying, "there's no free lunch". Remember that any time you watch a YouTube video 'for free' (you are the product or the target) or any time you upload a video 'for free'. Google and by extension the US government (i.e corporations) will control you and boss you. That's not freedom, it's serfdom.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Taiwan's Media Covers Closure of Microsoft's "AI" Lab, It's Time to Talk About the Gradual Death of Windows and Implosion of the "AI" Bubble
Earlier this week we showed that mostly Asian media had the 'nerve' to mention Microsoft silently shutting down its 'AI' lab
More Gains for GNU/Linux, Based on Web Surveys
the Steam site shows rapid growth for "Linux" this month
 
Confirmed in the Mainstream Media: A Lot of Microsoft "Workloads" Were Just LLM Slop (Helping to Fake Growth for Years, as Microsoft Had Paid "Open" "AI" to Become a "Client") and Demand is Rapidly Waning, Datacentres Canceled and/or Shut Down
Anything to facilitate further accounting fraud
IBM Gets Rid of Kelly Chambliss as Mass Layoffs Reported in IBM Consulting, IBM Loses Key Contracts/Graft
IBM Consulting has been in disarray lately
Slopwatch: Anti-Linux Articles, Not Even Written by Humans
Why aren't Web sites more vocal about this problem?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 02, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 02, 2025
Links 03/04/2025: Apple Fined Over Secret Surveillance, "Elegant Writer For A More Civilized Age"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 02/04/2025: Books and Cold Tea
Links for the day
Links 02/04/2025: More Layoffs, Nokia Again Takes Advantage of Illegal and Unconstitutional Patent Court With Nokia Staff as 'Judges'
Links for the day
Links 02/04/2025: Seizures and Returns to Windows of 24 Years Ago
Links for the day
LLM Slop Helps Obscure and Distort News About Layoffs (IBM, GAFAM)
It's hard to find accurate information
Links 02/04/2025: Microsoft Developers Are Threatening to Go on Strike, World Backup Day Noted
Links for the day
Gemini Protocol Has Growing Appeal (the Web Got Too Bloated and Full of LLM Slop)
For any "data plan" with bandwidth limits or "tiers" it would be cheaper to use/browse Geminispace
The Web Can Survive LLM Slop, But Only If We Collectively Shun and Discourage Serial Sloppers
Doing nothing ought not be a possibility
Amid Secret Shut-downs and Mass Layoffs at Microsoft (4 Waves of Layoffs in 3 Months of 2025) Some Microsoft Staff Expected to Go On Strike
workers going on strike
Gemini Links 02/04/2025: No more on Mastodon and Gemini Mention Script in Go
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, April 01, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, April 01, 2025
My Motion Disbarring or “Striking Off” Brett Wilson LLP for Enabling Violent Americans Who Try to Crush Microsoft Critics in the United Kingdom by Multiple SLAPPs
"Guns for hire" (for Microsoft people who received Microsoft salaries)
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Hijacked Again by Patent Litigation Industry, as President Cheeto Prioritises Aggressors
The "mafia" has taken over the "industry" and the Federal system (justice and constitutions trampled upon)
Ubuntu Slop and FUD Manufactured With LLMs and Funded (by Oneself) 'Studies'
Slop and FUD are ruining the Web
Gemini Links 01/04/2025: Games and More
Links for the day
Links 01/04/2025: Apple Fined $162M for Privacy Abuses, Disinformation Online a Growing Concern
Links for the day
Why We're Reporting Brett Wilson LLP for Apparently Misusing Their Licence to Protect American Microsofters Who Attack Women
For those who have not been keeping abreast
Newer Press Reports Confirm That Microsoft Shuts Down 'Hey Hi' (AI) Labs Despite All the Hype
The "hey hi" (AI) bubble is not sustainable
Links 01/04/2025: Mass Layoffs at Eidos and "Microsoft Pulls Back on Data Centers" (Demand Lacking); "Racist and Sexist" Slop From Microsoft
Links for the day
Stefano Maffulli and His Microsoft-Funded OSI Staff Are Killing the OSI and Killing "Open Source" (All for Money!)
This is far from over
Gemini Links 01/04/2025: XKCDpunk and worldclock.py
Links for the day
50 Years of Sabotage and a Gut Punch to Computer Science (and Science in General)
Will we get back to science-based computing rather than cult-like following?
Techrights Headlines as Semaphore
"If you are hearing this, thank you"
3 Months in 2025, 4 Waves of Mass Layoffs at Microsoft, Now Offices Shut Down Permanently
"A recent visit by the South China Morning Post confirmed that the office was dark, unoccupied, and had its logo removed."
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 31, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, March 31, 2025