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. ⬆