Consumer Rights Wiki - User contributions [en]

YouTube

2025-02-28T05:44:40Z

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{{InfoboxProductLine
| Title = YouTube
| Release Year = 2005
| Product Type = Video sharing and streaming
| In Production = Yes
| Official Website = https://youtube.com
| Logo = YouTube.png
}}

'''[[wikipedia:YouTube|YouTube]]''', founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim, is a global video-sharing platform and one of the most visited websites in the world. Acquired by [[Google]] in 2006, YouTube has since become the dominant platform for sharing videos on the internet.

YouTube's business model is built around advertising revenue, with creators earning money through ad views, subscriptions, and other monetization options. The platform hosts a wide range of content, including music videos, tutorials, news, vlogs, and live streams. YouTube has also begun offering subscription services, such as YouTube Premium and YouTube TV, for ad-free experiences, exclusive content, and live television.<ref>[[wikipedia:YouTube|"YouTube"]] - wikipedia.org -accessed 2025-01-30</ref>

YouTube has faced criticism and regulatory scrutiny on multiple fronts. Concerns have been raised about content moderation policies, the platform's role in the spread of misinformation, and its impact on user privacy, particularly in relation to data collection practices. Additionally, YouTube has been under fire for its algorithms, which some argue promote harmful or divisive content to maximize engagement.

==Anti-consumer actions==

===Advertising overload in YouTube===
:<i>See also: [[Advertising overload|Advertising Overload]]</i>
Advertisements are YouTube's primary source of revenue,<ref>https://www.youtube.com/howyoutubeworks/our-commitments/sharing-revenue/</ref> but because the platform is run by a publicly shared parent company, it is forced to grow its revenue by any means necessary. This has led to advertisements becoming more pervasive on the platform<ref>https://www.33rdsquare.com/why-youtube-has-so-many-ads-and-why-there-will-probably-be-more/</ref> such as an increasing number of spaces for static ads, longer ad breaks (which some users have documented being longer than the videos they watch<ref>https://www.androidauthority.com/youtube-long-unskippable-ads-problem-3519957/</ref><ref>https://www.pcworld.com/article/2590352/hours-long-unskippable-ads-spotted-on-youtube-whats-going-on.html</ref>), increased ad frequency in videos,<ref>https://www.howtogeek.com/youtube-is-adding-even-more-ads/</ref> and poorer quality ads.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRjGn54O4Zg</ref><ref>https://sherwood.news/business/mobile-game-ads-industry-fake-misleading/</ref><ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsKlfN9phAs</ref> Practices are also put into place in order to force non-paying users into seeing these ads as well, such as subscription-gating playing videos in the background.<ref>"Background play so you can watch while using other apps or with your screen locked" Via: https://www.youtube.com/premium?ybp=Sg0IBhIJdW5saW1pdGVk4AEB</ref> Even these paywalls are beginning to lose their value, as users have reported seeing ads while paying for YouTube Premium.<ref>https://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/18ll7y6/i_have_youtube_premium_why_am_i_getting_adds/</ref><ref>https://9to5google.com/2024/11/13/youtube-premium-ads-statement/</ref>

Furthermore, even if a user pays for YouTube premium, they do not necessarily receive an ad-free experience - they may still see ads within the video they watch, such as sponsored segments. YouTube has added a "skip" feature, but it has been reported that this does not work consistently.<ref>[https://www.dexerto.com/youtube/youtube-now-lets-you-skip-sponsored-segments-but-youll-have-to-pay-for-it-2872784/ YouTube now lets you skip sponsored segments — but you’ll have to pay for it] Dexerto. August 22, 2024. Retrieved January 30, 2024.</ref>

==== Refusal to handle malicious ads ====
A common phenomenon on YouTube's advertisements is content that is mature and/or malicious in nature.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B2KdIoRVo8&pp=ygUVeW91dHViZSBtYWxpY2lvdXMgYWRz</ref><ref>https://www.androidauthority.com/youtube-explicit-ads-problem-3520285/</ref> Rather than working towards clearing these ads, or acknowledging this advertising content that has been harming consumers on the platform, YouTube moderation has only cut the revenue for these videos that attempt to call out these ads,<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRpECEQ0-hg

Credit: DeepHumor</ref> which has been known to make said videos be less-showcased.<ref name=":1">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3H8D2LrLHc

Full report from video:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/155yNpfR7dGKuN-4rbrvbJLcJkhGa_HqvVuyPK7UEfPo/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.jou9rc5d49jl</ref>

=== Demonetization and censorship  ===
Since at least 2016, YouTube has had an extensive record of censoring content that is demonetized.<ref name=":1" /> Within understandable circumstances, legitimately malicious or offensive videos would be demonetized and should not be shown on the platform, however, how videos are considered to be demonetized has had a harmful impact upon both viewers and content creators. Mentally ill creators on YouTube for example, have experienced censorship via demonetization since 2018.<ref>https://archive.yr.media/journalism/outloud/trans-youtubers-say-they-are-being-censored-and-an-algorithm-may-be-to-blame/</ref> Content creators affected by this unfairly balanced moderation via algorithms<ref>https://bpr.studentorg.berkeley.edu/2018/05/01/adpocalypse-how-youtube-demonetization-imperils-the-future-of-free-speech/</ref> have dubbed these events as "adpocalypses".<ref>https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/20/18231561/youtube-child-exploitation-predators-controversy-creators-adpocalypse</ref>

===Crackdown against ad-blockers===

Related to the incessant usage of ads on the platform and multitudes of harmful and scam ads that have gotten through Youtube's advertising system, consumers have been needing to use adblockers while on the platform merely to watch their videos. Unfortunately, Google sparked a game of cat and mouse, and has been attempting to integrate a variant of DRM onto YouTube to make consumers watch ads.<ref>https://www.forbes.com/sites/kateoflahertyuk/2024/06/20/youtubes-ad-blocker-ban-just-got-even-bigger/</ref><ref>https://arstechnica.com/google/2023/11/youtube-tries-to-kill-ad-blockers-in-push-for-ad-dollars-premium-subs/</ref><ref group="Rossmann Video">[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMaFH4KzOVg YouTube blocks adblockers; will this be their downfall?]</ref> However, these attempts usually only work for a short period before AdBlock tools find new ways to circumvent the advertisements,<ref>https://community.brave.com/t/brave-no-longer-blocking-youtube-ads-as-of-march-27-2024/540032/2</ref> resulting in these actions taking place reflecting the [[wikipedia:Streisand_effect | Streisand effect.]]<ref group="Rossmann Video">[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GARcKCaUfI YouTube's adblock war is backfiring in the worst way possible 🤣]</ref>

There have also been attempts to inject ads directly into video streams, which has damaged extensions such as SponsorBlock.<ref group="Rossmann Video">[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weP62wPEjRw Youtube is dedicated to making this website worse; destroys sponsorblock with ad injection changes]</ref>

Google has directly confirmed attempts to harm the experience of users who use adblock and also Firefox via intentionally slowing down connection speeds by 5 seconds.<ref group="Rossmann Video">[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMLMQRS3Krk Youtube confirms intentional slowdown of adblock users 🤦‍♂️]</ref><ref group="Rossmann Video">[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x7NSw0Irc0 Is Youtube making firefox load slow on purpose?]</ref>
Further viewing:
<ref group="Rossmann Video">[https://youtube.com/watch?v=fcXTlobPCQw Youtube goes to war with ad blockers - how companies die]</ref><ref group="Rossmann Video">[https://youtube.com/watch?v=ALvky_4mJpM Youtube adblocker gives Google the finger on their own platform]</ref><ref group="Rossmann Video">[https://youtube.com/watch?v=PTmZv7-eMrE Youtube's war on adblockers continues, sends cease & desist to invidious.io - you know what to do 😉]</ref>

====Offline video DRM====
The YouTube Mobile app allows you to download videos for offline consumption if you have a YouTube Premium subscription.<ref name=":0">https://www.youtube.com/premium </ref> However, the app's DRM prevents you from watching downloaded videos, unless the app has "phoned home" in the last 48 hours.<ref>https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6141269</ref> This caveat is not clearly disclosed on the main YouTube Premium page, instead requiring the user to navigate support articles to discover this limitation.

===Paywalling standard browser features===
Another premium feature of the YouTube mobile app is the ability to play videos in the background.<ref name=":0" /> Without a premium subscription, neither the app nor a web browser will play YouTube videos in the background. However, the default HTML5 video player supports this with no extra effort needed from the developer.

==References==
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===Relevant Rossmann Videos:===
<references group="Rossmann Video" />
[[Category:Google]]
[[Category:Social media companies]]

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{{InfoboxCompany
| Company = Reddit
| Name = Reddit
| Type = Public
| Founded = 2005
| Industry = Social Media Services
| Official Website = https://reddit.com/
| Logo = Reddit_logo_2023.svg.png
}}[[wikipedia:Reddit|'''Reddit''']] is a far-left American social network for social-news aggregation, content rating, and forums. As of December 2024, Reddit is the eighth most-visited website in the world. It was founded by University of Virginia roommates Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, as well as Aaron Swartz, in 2005.

==Controversies==

===API paywall===
In April of 2023, Reddit announced they would be locking API features and functionality previously accessible to it's users behind a paywall, citing concerns about user generated content being trained on AI. This resulted in a backlash in the community as alternative apps utilizing Reddit's API would be rendered completely useless. While some user's held out hope that app developers could pay this fee to keep their user base, Apollo developer Christian Selig crushed any hope of this idea, explaining that the cost of this API fee was too high and that he would be ceasing development for the foreseeable future.

Users expressed concerns that this wasn't due to AI but due to greed and an attempt to monopolize information as Reddit is often cited as many people's go to resource for almost any topic. This sentiment resulted in one of the largest internet protests known as the Reddit Blackout. The Reddit Blackout was an event in which subreddits would be closed, marked as NSFW to prevent advertisements, or flooded with posts shaming Reddit's CEO. Users would also delete their posts, accounts, or edit them to shame the CEO in an attempt to reduce the value of the information. <ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Reddit_API_controversy "2023 Reddit API controversy"] - Wikipedia </ref> 

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==General References:==
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[[Category:Social media companies]]
[[Category:Reddit]]

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2025-02-28T05:33:40Z

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# Subscribe to this channel: youtube.com/user/mquin40440

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Template:Main Page/Shortened how to help

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<h2>Help fight consumer exploitation</h2>
{{Hatnote| Want more ways you can help? See [[How to help]]. }}
<h3>Your #1 mission: Turn videos into wiki articles</h3>

<h4>Where to start — what we need from you</h4>
# Subscribe to this channel: youtube.com/user/mquin40440
# Go to the [[Louis Rossmann - Video Directory|Video Directory]].
# Pick a video that interests you.
# [[Consumer_Action_Taskforce:New_here|Create an article]] following our [[Consumer_Action_Taskforce:Editorial_guidelines|content guidelines]].
# Edit the [[Louis Rossmann - Video Directory|Video Directory]] with a link to your article.

Each video in our directory contains valuable information about consumer rights violations that needs to be transformed into wiki articles.

Not ready to write? That's okay! You can still help by:
*🔍 Reviewing videos in the directory
*✅ Marking irrelevant videos for review
*➕ Adding missing relevant videos to the list

👉 [[Louis Rossmann - Video Directory|Click here to browse the Video Directory]] 👈

Want to learn more about our mission? Check out our full [[Mission statement|Mission Statement]].

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