YouTube: Difference between revisions

'''[[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>

Advertisements are YouTube's primary source of revenue,<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/howyoutubeworks/our-commitments/sharing-revenue/ How YouTube Works]</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>{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Jordan |date=20 Jan 2024 |title=Why YouTube Has So Many Ads (and Why There Will Probably Be More) |url=https://www.33rdsquare.com/software-app/why-youtube-has-so-many-ads-and-why-there-will-probably-be-more/ |url-status=live |access-date=5 Apr 2025 |website=33rd Square}}</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>{{Cite web |last=Siddiqui |first=Aamir |date=27 Jan 2025 |title=Frustrated YouTube viewers seek explanation for hour-long unskippable ads (Updated: Clarification) |url=https://www.androidauthority.com/youtube-long-unskippable-ads-problem-3519957/ |url-status=live |access-date=5 Apr 2025 |website=Android Authority}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Dirscherl |first=Hans-Christian Dirscherl |last2=Lee |first2=Joel |date=28 Jan 2025 |title=Hours-long unskippable ads spotted on YouTube. What’s going on? |url=https://www.pcworld.com/article/2590352/hours-long-unskippable-ads-spotted-on-youtube-whats-going-on.html |url-status=live |access-date=5 Apr 2025 |website=PCWorld}}</ref>), increased ad frequency in videos,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wright |first=Arol |date=26 Apr 2024 |title=YouTube is Adding Even More Ads |url=https://www.howtogeek.com/youtube-is-adding-even-more-ads/ |url-status=live |access-date=5 Apr 2025 |website=How-To-Geek}}</ref> and poorer quality ads.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |last=@T3rr0r |date=17 Oct 2021 |title=BAD Mobile Game Ads |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRjGn54O4Zg |url-status=live |access-date=5 Apr 2025 |website=[[YouTube]]}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite web |last=Knoblauch |first=Max |date=14 Jun 2024 |title=Why are mobile game ads so weird and bad? |url=https://sherwood.news/business/mobile-game-ads-industry-fake-misleading/ |url-status=live |access-date=5 Apr 2025 |website=Sherwood News}}</ref><ref name=":7">{{Cite web |last=@Saberspark |date=18 Sep 2021 |title=The DISGUSTING State of Mobile Game Ads (and why YouTube LOVES IT) |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsKlfN9phAs |url-status=live |access-date=5 Apr 2025 |website=[[YouTube]]}}</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>[https://www.youtube.com/premium?ybp=Sg0IBhIJdW5saW1pdGVk4AEB YouTube Premium]</ref>  

Furthermore, even if a user pays for YouTube premium, they do not necessarily receive an ad-free experience<ref>{{Cite web |title=I have YouTube premium, why am I getting adds. |url=https://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/18ll7y6/i_have_youtube_premium_why_am_i_getting_adds/ |url-status=live |access-date=5 Apr 2025 |website=[[Reddit]]}}</ref> - 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>{{Cite web |last=Singh |first=Anurag |date=22 Aug 2024 |title=YouTube now lets you skip sponsored segments — but you’ll have to pay for it |url=https://www.dexerto.com/youtube/youtube-now-lets-you-skip-sponsored-segments-but-youll-have-to-pay-for-it-2872784/ |url-status=live |access-date=5 Apr 2025 |website=Dexerto}}</ref>

A common phenomenon on YouTube's advertisements is content that is mature and/or malicious in nature.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Beyond The Internet |date=22 Feb 2025 |title=YouTube Ads are a Disgrace… |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B2KdIoRVo8 |url-status=live |access-date=5 Apr 2025 |website=[[YouTube]]}}</ref><ref name=":8">{{Cite web |last=Sharma |first=Adamya |date=27 Jan 2025 |title=Explicit ads are plaguing YouTube, and it’s only getting worse |url=https://www.androidauthority.com/youtube-explicit-ads-problem-3520285/ |url-status=live |access-date=5 Apr 2025 |website=Android Authority}}</ref> The content of these advertisements include pornography,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Saberspark |date=Mar 31, 2025 |title=YouTube's Ads Have Hit A New Low...(it's literally p*rn) |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW4On_gWAvI |access-date=Apr 6, 2025 |work=YouTube}}</ref><ref name=":8" /> false advertising,<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6" /><ref name=":7" /> scams,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Jakob_G |date=Dec 12, 2023 |title=YouTube doesn't want to take down scam ads |url=https://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/18gjiqy/youtube_doesnt_want_to_take_down_scam_ads/ |access-date=Apr 7, 2025 |website=Reddit - r/YouTube}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=JerryRigEverything |date=Mar 9, 2023 |title=I CAUGHT THE YOUTUBE SCAMMER - $1000 dollars EVERY DAY?! |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iROF9Dd7FXA |access-date=Apr 7, 2025 |website=YouTube}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=LoganAH |date=Dec 22, 2023 |title=Why does YouTube run blatant scams as advertisements? |url=https://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/18osjs6/why_does_youtube_run_blatant_scams_as/ |access-date=Apr 7, 2025 |website=Reddit - r/YouTube}}</ref> and far more. 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>{{Cite web |last=Deep Humor |date=24 Feb 2025 |title=Watch This Before YouTube Deletes It. |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRpECEQ0-hg |url-status=live |access-date=5 Apr 2025 |website=[[YouTube]]}}</ref> which has been known to make said videos be less-showcased.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |last=@Sealow |date=29 Nov 2017 |title=Extensive evidence of algorithm censorship of demonetised videos |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3H8D2LrLHc |url-status=live |access-date=5 Apr 2025 |website=[[YouTube]]}}</ref><ref name=":1">[https://docs.google.com/document/d/155yNpfR7dGKuN-4rbrvbJLcJkhGa_HqvVuyPK7UEfPo/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.jou9rc5d49jl Relation between a YouTube video’s monetisation status and their algorithm promotion]</ref>

Since at least 2016, YouTube has had an extensive record of censoring content that is demonetized.<ref name=":4" /><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. Transgender creators on YouTube, for example, have experienced unfair censorship via demonetization since 2018.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Disney |first=Malia |date=4 May 2018 |title=Trans YouTubers Say They Are Being Censored. Is It The Algorithm? |url=https://archive.yr.media/journalism/outloud/trans-youtubers-say-they-are-being-censored-and-an-algorithm-may-be-to-blame/ |url-status=live |access-date=5 Apr 2025 |website=archive.yr.media}}</ref> Content creators affected by this unfairly balanced moderation via algorithms<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cantz |first=Randy |date=1 May 2018 |title=Adpocalypse: How YouTube Demonetization Imperils the Future of Free Speech |url=https://bpr.studentorg.berkeley.edu/2018/05/01/adpocalypse-how-youtube-demonetization-imperils-the-future-of-free-speech/ |url-status=live |access-date=5 Apr 2025 |website=Berkeley Political Review}}</ref> have dubbed these events as "adpocalypses".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Alexander |first=Julia |date=20 Feb 2019 |title=YouTubers fear looming ‘adpocalypse’ after child exploitation controversy |url=https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/20/18231561/youtube-child-exploitation-predators-controversy-creators-adpocalypse |url-status=live |access-date=5 Apr 2025 |website=The Verge}}</ref>

When YouTube integrated the ability to take down videos via the ''Digital Millennium Copyright Act'' (DMCA), they decided to often handle takedown requests in an automated manner.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news |last=Jines |first=Chuck |date=Mar 4, 2025 |title=ABUSE – How DMCA automated takedown notices violate free speech |url=https://www.chuckjines.com/abuse-dmac-automated-takedown-notices-and-free-speech/ |access-date=Mar 28, 2025 |work=Chuck Jines}}</ref> This automation has led to an excess in fraudulent DMCA takedowns of content,<ref>{{Cite web |last=u/itanshi |date=Mar 27, 2017 |title=I'd like to talk about the problem with anonymous DMCA take down notices. |url=https://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/5zzr9c/id_like_to_talk_about_the_problem_with_anonymous/ |access-date=Mar 28, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=The Civil Rights Lawyer |date=Jul 21, 2021 |title=“Lackluster” Gets a Fraudulent Copyright Strike for Dashcam Footage and Now We Sue |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPqtT88PT9Y |access-date=Mar 28, 2025 |website=YouTube}}</ref> even going so far as to have Bungie call out YouTube in a legal case for their negligence.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Brodkin |first=John |date=Mar 28, 2022 |title=Bungie slams YouTube’s DMCA system in lawsuit against Destiny takedown fraudsters |url=https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/03/bungie-slams-youtubes-dmca-system-in-lawsuit-against-destiny-takedown-fraudsters/ |access-date=Mar 28, 2025 |work=Ars Technica}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Andy |first=Maxwell |date=Jun 24, 2022 |title=Digital Trails: How Bungie Identified a Mass Sender of Fake DMCA Notices |url=https://torrentfreak.com/digital-trails-how-bungie-identified-a-mass-sender-of-fake-dmca-notices-220624/ |access-date=Mar 28, 2025 |work=Torrent Freak}}</ref> These takedown requests have ranged from users impersonating corporations, to users impersonating other users.<ref name=":3" />  

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 |last=O'Flaherty |first=Kate |date=20 Jun 2024 |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/ |url-status=live |access-date=5 Apr 2025 |website=Forbes}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Harding |first=Scharon |date=1 Nov 2023 |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/ |url-status=live |access-date=5 Apr 2025 |website=ArsTechnica}}</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 |date=27 May 2024 |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 |url-status=live |access-date=5 Apr 2025 |website=Brave Community}}</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 [[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 disrupted extensions such as 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>

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 YouTube 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>{{Cite web |title=Watch videos offline on mobile in selected countries and regions |url=https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6141269 |url-status=live |access-date=5 Apr 2025 |website=[[Google]]}}</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.

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 |title=[YouTube] DRM on ALL videos with tv (TVHTML5) client #12563 |url=https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/12563 |url-status=live |access-date=5 Apr 2025 |website=GitHub}}</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>

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. -->

On November 10 2021, YouTube removed the public dislike count from all of its videos. Creators are still be able to view dislike counts on their videos through the YouTube Studio website and app.<ref name=":2">{{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>

According to YouTube. this was implemented after user testing revealed that users were less likely to feel incentivized to actively try and manipulate the dislike count on videos if the dislike count was not visible to them.<ref name=":2" />

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

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 |date=2025-04-04 |title=Autoplay videos - YouTube Help |url=https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6327615?hl=en |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250401080124/https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6327615?hl=en |archive-date=2025-04-01 |access-date=2025-04-04 |website=YouTube Hep}}</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 stared 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.

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 scantly dressed women as their profile pictures and copy-pasting the most liked comments on the video. 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.

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