The relative share (% of social control media) of YouTube and Twitter, based on a data source (OpenDocument Format):

Summary: A lot of numbers (or visible counters like views, subscribers etc.) in YouTube are basically fake and Google tolerates this because it gives shareholders a false sense of impact and financial viability

Here in Techrights we've long presented various complaints about what YouTube did and had become, based on people who know the platform very well. It is infested with marketing, spam, bots, and abuse, not to mention misinformation and rampant censorship. It's the sort of "free" platform one should avoid like the plague (or COVID-19); it's not free at all, you're just agreeing to give Gulag/Alphabet control over your life (or your publications, audience and so on).

Right now in YouTube (GulagTube) there is this controversy brewing. Racism by moderators? Seems like it. Posting while black (in GulagTube) can get you badly discriminated against. What's OK for some people isn't OK for others.

Wanna bet Gulag would seek 'revenge' if you call them racist (in order to protect the racists) in their own platforms? It's like censorship being used or misused to cover up acts of censorship. Arbitrary moderation/preferences (like deranking or boosting things) isn't done by "algorithms" or "Hey Hi" (AI). People actually code in these biases and they supervise/encourage the biases.

But the reason we write this isn't to debate censorship or racism. It's about Google (Gulag) faking its importance. It bought the leading online video platform a decade and a half ago and (like Microsoft with GitHub and Skype) the platform's lead is gradually lost. Never mind the financial losses, which is a problem that Twitter has as well. In Gulag's case, they used to pour in money to 'incentivise' so-called 'creators' and pay out for ads. That sort of stopped in recent years, however gradually. There's plenty of debate about this; it's not just the subject of mere speculation. Many so-called 'creators' aren't happy; some explore alternatives. There are many channels that simply became inactive.

The main subject of this post is clickfraud. Last week I reported clickfraud to YouTube, seeing it was getting a lot worse and more blatant. Did Google review the report? Probably not. It does not surprise me as I witnessed the exact same thing in Twitter. The "appeals" process is also bot-operated. It's probably there just for legal (compliance) reasons and the video below explains how dumb it can be to even bother! It's like no human will be assigned to actually review decisions as "that's too expensive..."



But the bottom line is that, at least in my experience, GulagTube simply ignores reports of clickfraud. Put another way, Gulag Inc. (Alphabet) is tolerating clickfraud as long as it makes the platform look up to 20 times bigger than it really is. One cannot trust the numbers there as they're heavily gamed (it can impress Alphabet shareholders; they're barely even informed about the financial losses). In effect, Gulag supports the 'black market' of fake clicks. Twitter does the same. Thankfully some whistleblowers come out, speaking about such things. We need more whistleblowers. We need better media, too. ⬆