Bonum Certa Men Certa

'Influencers' Gaming the Web of Videos (GulagTube)

Video download link | md5sum 74edc4f1f314192a30dd535a8be1b086 Gaming YouTube for Fun and Profit Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: Charlatans with channels in GulagTube (YouTube) are selling their audiences and discarding their principles in the process; the net effect is misinformation, usually with no disclosure added anywhere inside videos or near videos

LAST month we showed that "YouTube is Becoming Mostly SPAM" and we recently mentioned ways to bypass Google's ads/spying. That does not compensate for the underlying videos however. Many of them are spammy (like webspam with video as medium of choice), typically without any disclosure/s, and they're gaming the video-centric search results (akin to SEO).



It is very important if not crucial to properly understand what the Web has become and is still becoming (it only gets worse over time).

I have a million subscribers, according to GoogleIt gets even worse when it comes to the so-called 'Linux' Foundation, e.g. Spamnil claiming to have 20,000 subscribers in YouTube while he can barely get 20 views on his videos [1, 2] (too difficult to overlook this anomaly).

Fake "social" "media" like Twitter lets people literally purchase fake "followers" and in YouTube companies buy ads disguised as news, or marketing spam disguised as honest information from "dormitory bros". Fakes are also OK with them. They just need to make themselves seem popular. The "unlike" button was removed, so gaming of reviews is far too easy. It's like AstroTurfing.

It's not entirely unknown that many of the so-called self-labeled 'influencers' are corporate spam, shilling products and selling audiences to them. In the video above I focus on one particular example, to which I devoted about 15 minutes. There are many more examples like it, sometimes resulting in bans. The self-labeled 'influencers' jump to each other's defence, trying to protect the practice. At whose expense do they do their 'influencing'?

As one person has just put it in our IRC network, "they're pawns for the highest bidders, ready to shill at command. GulagTube turned from a hobby to a "job" where you strive to earn the most money even if it means selling out."

Recent Techrights' Posts

There's Nothing "Funny" About Attacking Free Speech and Software Freedom
persistent focus on the principal issues is very important
GNU/Linux Adoption in Africa, a Passageway Towards Freedom From Neo-Colonialism
Digi(tal)-Colonialism and/or Techolonialism are a thing. Can Africa flee the trap?
 
Links 06/12/2023: Many More December Layoffs
Links for the day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, December 05, 2023
IRC logs for Tuesday, December 05, 2023
PipeWire 1.0: Linux audio comes of age
Once upon a time, serious audio users like musicians and audio engineers had real trouble with Linux
This is How 'Linux' Foundation Presents Linux to the World
Right now it even picks Windows over Linux in some cases
Links 05/12/2023: Microsoft's Chatbot as Health Hazard
Links for the day
Professor Eben Moglen Explained How Software Patent Threats Had Changed Around 2014 (Alice Case) and What Would Happen Till 2025
clip aged reasonably well
CNN Contributes to Demolition of the Open Web
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Eben Moglen on Encryption and Anonymity
The alternate net we need, and how we can build it ourselves
Yet More Microsofters Inside the Board of Mozilla (Which Has Just Outsourced Firefox Development to Microsoft's Proprietary Prison)
Do you want a browser controlled (and spied on) by such a company?
IRC Proceedings: Monday, December 04, 2023
IRC logs for Monday, December 04, 2023
GNU/Linux Now Exceeds 3.6% Market Share on Desktops/Laptops, According to statCounter
things have changed for Windows in China
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news
Links 05/12/2023: Debt Brake in Germany and Layoffs at Condé Nast (Reddit, Wired, Ars Technica and More)
Links for the day
[Meme] Social Control Media Giants Shaping Debates on BSDs and GNU/Linux
listening to random people in Social Control Media
Reddit (Condé Nast), Which Has Another Round of Layoffs This Month, Incited People Against GNU/Linux Users (Divide and Rule, It's 2003 All Over Again!)
Does somebody (perhaps a third party) fan the flames?
Who Will Hold the Open Source Initiative (OSI) Accountable for Taking Bribes From Microsoft and Selling Out to Enable/Endorse Massive Copyright Infringement?
it does Microsoft advocacy
Using Gemini to Moan About Linux and Spread .NET
Toxic, acidic post in Gemini
Web Monopolist, Google, 'Pulls a Microsoft' by Hijacking/Overriding the Name of Competitor and Alternative to the Web
Gulag 'hijacking' 'Gemini'
Links 04/12/2023: Mass Layoffs at Spotify (Debt, Losses, Bubble) Once Again
Links for the day
ChatGPT Hype/Vapourware (and 'Bing') Has Failed, Google Maintains Dominance in Search
a growing mountain of debt and crises
[Meme] Every Real Paralegal Knows This
how copyright law works
Forging IRC Logs and Impersonating Professors: the Lengths to Which Anti-Free Software Militants Would Go
Impersonating people in IRC, too
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, December 03, 2023
IRC logs for Sunday, December 03, 2023
GNU/Linux Popularity Surging, So Why Did MakeUseOf Quit Covering It About 10 Days Ago?
It's particularly sad because some of the best articles about GNU/Linux came from that site, both technical articles and advocacy-centric pieces
Links 04/12/2023: COVID-19 Data Misused Again, Anti-Consumerism Activism
Links for the day