YouTube: Difference between revisions

==Consumer Impact Summary:==

===Restricting users without verification===

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 ad blockers 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>{{Cite web |first=Kate |last=O'Flaherty |title=YouTube’s Ad Blocker Ban Just Got Even Bigger |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/kateoflahertyuk/2024/06/20/youtubes-ad-blocker-ban-just-got-even-bigger/ |website=Forbes |date=20 Jun 2024 |access-date=12 Jul 2025 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |first=Scharon |last=Harding |title=YouTube’s ad blocker crackdown escalates, aggravating users |url=https://arstechnica.com/google/2023/11/youtube-tries-to-kill-ad-blockers-in-push-for-ad-dollars-premium-subs/ |website=Ars Technica |date=1 Nov 2023 |access-date=12 Jul 2025 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231101170643/https://arstechnica.com/google/2023/11/youtube-tries-to-kill-ad-blockers-in-push-for-ad-dollars-premium-subs/ |archive-date=1 Nov 2023}}</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 of time before ad blocking tools find new ways to circumvent the advertisements,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Brave no longer blocking youtube ads as of March 27, 2024 |url=https://community.brave.com/t/brave-no-longer-blocking-youtube-ads-as-of-march-27-2024/540032 |website=Brave |date=27 May 2024 |access-date=12 Jul 2025 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240801101510/https://community.brave.com/t/brave-no-longer-blocking-youtube-ads-as-of-march-27-2024/540032 |archive-date=1 Aug 2024}}</ref><!-- Can someone add a source from ublock? Here's their site and wiki if anyone wants to chip in.

https://ublockorigin.com/ --> resulting in these actions taking place reflecting the {{Wplink|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 disrupted extensions such as [https://sponsor.ajay.app/ SponsorBlock], a community-driven tool for automatically skipping sponsored segments. Users submit timestamps marking the start and end of sponsored segments. The add-on's functionality is severely weakened when personalized ads, which have different durations and appear at varying timestamps for individual viewers, are injected directly into video streams.<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>

The YouTube Mobile app allows you to download videos for offline consumption if you have a YouTube Premium subscription.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/premium |title=YouTube Premium |website=[[YouTube]]}}</ref> However, the app's DRM prevents you from watching downloaded videos, unless the app has "phoned home" in the last 48 hours.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Watch videos offline on mobile in selected countries and regions |url=https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6141269 |website=[[Google]] |access-date=13 Jul 2025 |url-status=live}}</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.

===Anti-features and dark patterns to trick the user into staying longer<!-- This is pretty self-evident, but we should still add some sources -->===

YouTube has introduced multiple features that are designed to make the user stay longer on the platform and watch more videos than they intended, thus increasing ad revenue. They come at the cost of making it harder to watch the content the user actually wants to watch.

This includes the introduction of a feature called Autoplay that resumes playback of another video (chosen by the platform) immediately after the current one ends (after a delay of about 8 seconds), in the hope that the user gets hooked and continues to watch. This feature is activated by default (opt-out instead of opt-in).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Autoplay videos - YouTube Help

|url=https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6327615?hl=en |website=[[Google]] |date=4 Apr 2025 |access-date=13 Jul 2025 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250401080124/https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6327615?hl=en |archive-date=1 Apr 2025}}</ref>

Another feature like this is the inclusion of irrelevant videos in search results. If the user searches for something and scrolls down the list too far, the likelihood of them finding what they were looking for decreases since results are generally sorted by what the platform deems relevant to the search query. Hence, if the user scrolls down too far, it is likely that they give up and leave the site. Therefore YouTube started to add random videos out of its recommendation list for the user into the search results, increasing the probability that they see something they will click and watch. This makes it much harder and more inconvenient to find relevant search results since the user has to scroll past all the noise that is designed to distract them. It also means that a video that is actually relevant is less likely to be discovered — especially if it still has low view counts — since unrelated videos are promoted in search in its place.

===Rampant bots===

For the first few moments of a video being published on the platform, the comments section of the video is swarmed by a legion of bots that aim to scam or garner attention from viewers. Most of these bots employ similar tactics to achieve their goals such as using popular public figures and/or scantily-dressed women as their profile pictures, and copy-pasting the most liked comments on the video (and edit afterwards if the comment reaches a certain threshold). These bots also spam comments that are often irrelevant to the YouTube channel or the subject matter of the video. Despite repeated requests from creators and communities alike, YouTube still has yet to implement any measures against these bots. Hence YouTubers and their teams have to manually moderate the comments on each individual video.

===Crackdown against third-party front-ends<!-- Could be expanded on -->===

YouTube began blocking third-party front-ends providing privacy friendly ways of access to the site.<ref>{{Cite web |date=16 Feb 2025 |title=Youtube changed something, again! |url=https://nadeko.net/announcements/invidious-02-20/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250816014757/https://nadeko.net/announcements/invidious-02-20/ |archive-date=16 Aug 2025 |access-date=16 Aug 2025}}</ref>

===AI upscaling without consent<!-- I´m not good in writing stuff like this but I hope it makes more people aware, so that this paragraph can be expanded -->===

Youtube is now using AI Upscaling in their shorts without the creator's consent.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2025-08-14 |title=YouTube Is Using AI to Alter Content (and not telling us) |url=https://youtu.be/86nhP8tvbLY |url-status=live |website=YouTube}}</ref>  

===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   -->===