Editing YouTube

{{StubNotice}}

{{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,<!-- No article specifically states this, but whenever I use a device without an adblock, I have been seeing more static ads on the home page and video sidebar. I think it is reasonable to assume they don't mention it because they are distracted by the more annoying video ads - JamesTDG --> 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.<!-- I need a source for this. Very obvious statement but it's not like the YT marketing materials are going to outright say this. --> 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<!-- Maybe consider changing the title for this section... --><!-- Potential sources that require further studying before integration  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877050921024467  https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3555209 -->===
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. Trans creators on YouTube for example, have experienced unfair 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===
<!-- Needs citations -->
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><!-- Can someone add a source from ublock? Here's their site and wiki if anyone wants to chip in.
https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki
https://ublockorigin.com/ --> 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 ad blockers 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.

====Universal DRM testing====
YouTube on TV is a HTML5 web interface from Google to allow supported devices such as game consoles which do not have a native YouTube app to view content via YouTube. An A/B experiment has begun which protects all video and audio content regardless of bitrate or format via the YouTube on TV platform with DRM.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-03-08 |title=[YouTube] DRM on ALL videos with tv (TVHTML5) client #12563 |url=https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/12563}}</ref> One XBox 360 user reported that the YouTube on TV functionality stopped working as a result of the DRM implementation. A number of content creators license their work uploaded to YouTube via the Creative Commons licenses. The universal implementation of DRM to restrict a users ability to exercise their rights granted by the license is a violation of the aforementioned licenses.<ref>{{Cite web |title=License Versions |url=https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/License_Versions#Application_of_effective_technological_measures_by_users_of_CC-licensed_works_prohibited |website=Creative Commons}}</ref>

===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.<!-- Another obvious one, but needs a source. Trivial to test with any HTML5 video test page. -->

===Removal of the dislike count on videos===
On November 10 2021, YouTube removed the public dislike count from all of its videos. It is suspected that YouTube did this in response to high dislike counts on videos from the White House's official channel<ref>{{Cite web |date=30 Mar 2021 |title=Is YouTube Removing Its Public 'Dislikes' Because the Biden White House Keeps Getting Ratioed So Hard? |url=https://pjmedia.com/bryan-preston/2021/03/30/is-youtube-removing-its-public-dislikes-because-the-biden-white-house-keeps-getting-ratioed-so-hard-n1436206 |url-status=live |access-date=2025-03-27 |website=PJ Media}}</ref> during the Biden administration. Creators are still be able to view dislike counts on their videos through the YouTube Studio website and app.<ref>{{Cite web |title=An update to dislikes on YouTube |url=https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/update-to-youtube/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250305223738/https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/update-to-youtube/ |archive-date=2025-03-05 |access-date=2025-03-19 |website=YouTube Official Blog}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

===Relevant Rossmann Videos:<!-- Videos to add for references, but haven't had sections made yet: (tons in the video directory to still add fyi!)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-QtwGfILTo Youtube bans 3D print channel after manually reviewing its videos as suitable for monetization 🤔  https://youtube.com/watch?v=7wFqblQY6Dk Youtube wants us to pay for views - this platform is circling the drain	  https://youtube.com/watch?v=ejVDwP1kswA @EEVblog tries Youtube's payola scam; stay away from this	   -->===
<references group="Rossmann Video" />
[[Category:Google]]