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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

Stefano Maffulli and His Microsoft-Funded OSI Staff Are Killing the OSI and Killing "Open Source" (All for Money!)
This is far from over
Techrights Headlines as Semaphore
"If you are hearing this, thank you"
 
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
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?
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
Links 31/03/2025: China Tensions, Bombs Falling in Myanmar After Earthquake
Links for the day
Gemini Links 31/03/2025: Falling Out of Love With Tech, Sunsetting openSNP
Links for the day
R.T.O. at IBM in Texas and Atlanta (State of Georgia) Expected as "Soft Layoffs" Catalyst This Coming Year
It also sounds like more IBM layoffs are in the making
Law Firms Can Also Lose Their Licence for Clearly Misusing It
The bottom line is, never made the false assumption that because you can pile up SLAPPs in a docket you will not suffer from bad reputation or even get disbarred
Link between institutional abuse, Swiss jurists, Debianism and FSFE
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
LLM Slop Piggybacking News About GNU/Linux and Distorting It
new examples
Links 31/03/2025: Press and Democracy Under Further Attacks in the US, Attitudes Towards Slop Sour
Links for the day
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Privacy Fiasco in Detail: The OSI Does Not Respect Anybody's Privacy
The surveillance mafia that bans dissent or key people (even co-founders) with dissenting views
Gemini Links 31/03/2025: More X-Filesposting and Dreaming in Emacs
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 30, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, March 30, 2025
Links 30/03/2025: Security Breaches, Crackdowns on Dissent/Rival Politicians
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/03/2025: London Soundtrack Festival, Superbloom, gmiCAPTCHA
Links for the day
Phasing Out Vista 10 in Nations Where ~90% of Windows Users Still Rely on It
Recipe for another Microsoft disaster
The Cost of Pursuing the Much-Needed Reform/Shield Against Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs)
“It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.”
The LLM Bubble is About to Implode, Gimmicks and Financial Shell Games Cannot Prevent That, Only Delay It
To inflate the bubble MElon is now doing the classic trick of buying from oneself for a fictional value
Links 30/03/2025: Contagious Ideas, Signal Leak, and Squashing Lousy Patents
Links for the day
Links 30/03/2025: "Quantum Randomness" and "F-1 Visa Revoked" in US
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/03/2025: US as a Threat, Returning to the WWW
Links for the day
Links 30/03/2025: Judge Blocks Dismantling Of VOA, Turkey Arrested Many Journalists
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 29, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, March 29, 2025