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YouTube
Basic Information
Release Year 2005
Product Type Video sharing and streaming
In Production Yes
Official Website https://youtube.com

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.[1]

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.

Incidents

Advertising overload on YouTube

Main article: Advertising overload

Advertisements are YouTube's primary source of revenue,[2] 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[3] 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,[4][5]), increased ad frequency in videos,[6] and poorer quality ads.[7][8][9] 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.[10]

Furthermore, even if a user pays for YouTube premium, they do not necessarily receive an ad-free experience[11] — they may still see ads within the video they watch, such as sponsored segments.[citation needed] YouTube has added a "skip" feature, but it has been reported that this does not work consistently.[12]

Refusal to handle malicious ads

A common phenomenon on YouTube's advertisements is content that is mature and/or malicious in nature.[13][14] The content of these advertisements include pornography,[15][14] false advertising,[7][8][9] scams,[16][17][18] 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,[19] which has been known to make said videos be less-showcased.[20][21]

Demonetization and censorship

Since at least 2016, YouTube has had an extensive record of censoring content that is demonetized.[20][21] 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.[22] Content creators affected by this unfairly balanced moderation via algorithms[23] have dubbed these events as "adpocalypses".[24]

Irresponsibly automated moderation

When YouTube integrated the ability to take down videos via the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), they decided to often handle take-down requests in an automated manner.[25] This automation has led to an excess in fraudulent DMCA take-downs of content,[26][27] even going so far as to have Bungie call out YouTube in a legal case for their negligence.[28][29] These take-down requests have ranged from users impersonating corporations, to users impersonating other users.[25]

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 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.[30][31][Rossmann Video 1] However, these attempts usually only work for a short period of time before ad blocking tools find new ways to circumvent the advertisements,[32] resulting in these actions taking place reflecting the Streisand effect.[Rossmann Video 2]

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.[Rossmann Video 3]

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.[Rossmann Video 4][Rossmann Video 5]

Further viewing: 
[Rossmann Video 6][Rossmann Video 7][Rossmann Video 8]

Offline video DRM

The YouTube Mobile app allows you to download videos for offline consumption if you have a YouTube Premium subscription.[33] However, the app's DRM prevents you from watching downloaded videos, unless the app has "phoned home" in the last 48 hours.[34] 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 an 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.[35] 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.[36]

Paywalling standard browser features

Another premium feature of the YouTube mobile app is the ability to play videos in the background.[33] 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.[citation needed]

Removal of the dislike count on videos

On 10 November 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.[37]

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.[37] This spurred the creation of "Return YouTube Dislike" by Dmitry Selivanov, a third-party web browser extension to expose the dislike count again. YouTube discontinued the related API, upon which the extension relied, on 13 December 2021. From thereon "Return YouTube Dislike" switched "to using a combination of archived dislike stats, estimates extrapolated from extension user data and estimates based on view/like ratios for videos whose dislikes weren't archived and for outdated dislike archives."[38]

Anti-features and dark patterns to trick the user into staying longer

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).[39]

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.

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.

References

  1. "YouTube - Wikipedia". Wikipedia. Retrieved 30 Jan 2025.
  2. "How YouTube Works". YouTube.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. Brown, Jordan (20 Jan 2024). "Why YouTube Has So Many Ads (and Why There Will Probably Be More)". 33rd Square. Retrieved 12 Jul 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. Siddiqui, Aamir (27 Jan 2025). "Frustrated YouTube viewers seek explanation for hour-long unskippable ads (Updated: Clarification)". Android Authority. Archived from the original on 28 Jan 2025. Retrieved 12 Jul 2025.
  5. Dirscherl, Hans-Christian; Lee, Joel (28 Jan 2025). "Hours-long unskippable ads spotted on YouTube. What's going on?". PCWorld. Archived from the original on 29 Jan 2025. Retrieved 5 Apr 2025.
  6. Wright, Arol (26 Apr 2024). "YouTube is Adding Even More Ads". How-To-Geek. Archived from the original on 26 Apr 2024. Retrieved 12 Jul 2025.
  7. 7.0 7.1 @T3rr0r (17 Oct 2021). "BAD Mobile Game Ads". YouTube. Retrieved 12 Jul 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. 8.0 8.1 Knoblauch, Max (14 Jun 2024). "Why are mobile game ads so weird and bad?". Sherwood News. Archived from the original on 14 Jun 2024. Retrieved 12 Jul 2025.
  9. 9.0 9.1 @Saberspark (18 Sep 2021). "The DISGUSTING State of Mobile Game Ads (and why YouTube LOVES IT)". YouTube. Retrieved 12 Jul 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  10. "YouTube Premium". YouTube. Retrieved 12 Jul 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  11. CaptainMystery_123 (18 Dec 2023). "I have YouTube premium, why am I getting adds". Reddit. Archived from the original on 19 Dec 2023. Retrieved 12 Jul 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  12. Singh, Anurag (22 Aug 2024). "YouTube now lets you skip sponsored segments — but you'll have to pay for it". Dexerto. Archived from the original on 22 Aug 2024. Retrieved 12 Jul 2025.
  13. @Beyond The Internet (22 Feb 2025). "YouTube Ads are a Disgrace…". YouTube. Retrieved 12 Jul 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  14. 14.0 14.1 Sharma, Adamya (27 Jan 2025). "Explicit ads are plaguing YouTube, and it's only getting worse". Android Authority. Archived from the original on 27 Jan 2025. Retrieved 12 Jul 2025.
  15. @Saberspark (31 Mar 2025). "YouTube's Ads Have Hit A New Low...(it's literally p*rn)". YouTube. Retrieved 12 Jul 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  16. Jakob_G (12 Dec 2023). "YouTube doesn't want to take down scam ads". Reddit. Archived from the original on 17 Dec 2023. Retrieved 12 Jul 2025.
  17. @JerryRigEverything (9 Mar 2023). "I CAUGHT THE YOUTUBE SCAMMER - $1000 dollars EVERY DAY?!". YouTube. Retrieved 12 Jul 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  18. LoganAH (22 Dec 2023). "Why does YouTube run blatant scams as advertisements?". Reddit. Archived from the original on 13 Jul 2025. Retrieved 12 Jul 2025.
  19. @Deep Humor (24 Feb 2025). "Watch This Before YouTube Deletes It". YouTube. Retrieved 12 Jul 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  20. 20.0 20.1 @Sealow (29 Nov 2017). "Extensive evidence of algorithm censorship of demonetised videos". YouTube. Retrieved 12 Jul 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  21. 21.0 21.1 Karlaplan (20 Nov 2017). "Monetisation analysis / research". Google. Archived from the original on 19 Mar 2025. Retrieved 12 Jul 2025.
  22. Disney, Malia (4 May 2018). "Trans YouTubers Say They Are Being Censored. Is It The Algorithm?". archive.yr.media. Archived from the original on 30 Jan 2023. Retrieved 12 Jul 2025.
  23. Cantz, Randy (1 May 2018). "Adpocalypse: How YouTube Demonetization Imperils the Future of Free Speech". Berkeley Political Review. Archived from the original on 24 Apr 2024. Retrieved 5 Apr 2025.
  24. Alexander, Julia (20 Feb 2019). "YouTubers fear looming 'adpocalypse' after child exploitation controversy". The Verge. Archived from the original on 20 Feb 2019. Retrieved 12 Jul 2025.
  25. 25.0 25.1 Jines, Chuck (4 Mar 2025). "ABUSE – How DMCA automated takedown notices violate free speech". Chuck Jines. Archived from the original on 3 Mar 2025. Retrieved 12 Jul 2025.
  26. itanshi (27 Mar 2017). "I'd like to talk about the problem with anonymous DMCA take down notices". Reddit. Archived from the original on 6 Jun 2023. Retrieved 12 Jul 2025.
  27. @The Last Civil Rights Lawyer (21 Jul 2021). ""Lackluster" Gets a Fraudulent Copyright Strike for Dashcam Footage and Now We Sue". YouTube. Retrieved 12 Jul 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  28. Brodkin, John (28 Mar 2022). "Bungie slams YouTube's DMCA system in lawsuit against Destiny takedown fraudsters". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on 29 Mar 2022. Retrieved 12 Jul 2025.
  29. Maxwell, Andy (24 Jun 2022). "Digital Trails: How Bungie Identified a Mass Sender of Fake DMCA Notices". TorrentFreak. Archived from the original on 24 Jun 2022. Retrieved 12 Jul 2025.
  30. O'Flaherty, Kate (20 Jun 2024). "YouTube's Ad Blocker Ban Just Got Even Bigger". Forbes. Retrieved 12 Jul 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  31. Harding, Scharon (1 Nov 2023). "YouTube's ad blocker crackdown escalates, aggravating users". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on 1 Nov 2023. Retrieved 12 Jul 2025.
  32. "Brave no longer blocking youtube ads as of March 27, 2024". Brave. 27 May 2024. Archived from the original on 1 Aug 2024. Retrieved 12 Jul 2025.
  33. 33.0 33.1 "YouTube Premium". YouTube.
  34. "Watch videos offline on mobile in selected countries and regions". Google. Retrieved 13 Jul 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  35. coletdjnz (8 Mar 2025). "[YouTube] DRM on ALL videos with tv (TVHTML5) client #12563". GitHub. Archived from the original on 30 Mar 2025. Retrieved 13 Jul 2025.
  36. "License Versions". Creative Commons. Archived from the original on 1 Jan 2025. Retrieved 13 Jul 2025.
  37. 37.0 37.1 "An update to dislikes on YouTube". YouTube Official Blog. 10 Nov 2021. Archived from the original on 10 Nov 2021. Retrieved 13 Jul 2025.
  38. Can, Michael (29 Nov 2021). "Browser Extension Brings Back Dislike Count to YouTube Videos". PC Mag. Archived from the original on 30 Nov 2021. Retrieved 13 Jul 2025.
  39. "Autoplay videos - YouTube Help". Google. 4 Apr 2025. Archived from the original on 1 Apr 2025. Retrieved 13 Jul 2025.

Relevant Rossmann Videos: