4 ms·

Maybe they aren't downvoting for the fact, but they disagree with you that tying to karma solves the problem.

tialaramex 7y ago
Yup. A lot of Youtube abuse starts with hijacking. Lots of popular Youtube channels are by people who aren't very technically savvy. You can easily have 10 000 subscribers while only barely following how to make a video and upload it if there are 10 000 people out there who want that particular niche content. 100 000 is less common but not rare. That's a juicy target for a hijacker. The hijacker tricks the channel owner into giving them control. "Hi, YouTube Services here, great to see you're so successful. Can you go fill out this form and we'll upgrade you to Elite status". A day later, locked out of their account and unsure what's happening, the channel owner is frantic. If they're lucky they know other Youtubers and can get control back. Otherwise... they may just walk away. Meanwhile their subscribers are surprised to find that they're now subscribed to "Crypto investor update" or "Apple Genuis Bar" or whatever and it's bombarding them with videos they don't want. Every feature you give the channel is a feature hijackers will try to use to maximise their profitability. If they can replace old videos, they will, if they can edit them, they will. They can change titles and hide stuff so they do that immediately. If you're a channel owner: Buy two FIDO Security Keys. Use them to secure any accounts related to the channel then put one somewhere safe (maybe literally a safe if you have one) and keep the other like your house keys. Unlike other 2FA technologies, FIDO keys can't be phished. So short of you being dumb enough to literally Fedex your key to a bad guy (Do I need to say not to do that? Do not do that) there's no way to get tricked into letting them control your channel. But until we get to a world where this sort of defence is ubiquitous, every Youtube API feature has to be considered as to how you'll unwind it if the channel was hijacked.

Yup. A lot of Youtube abuse starts with hijacking. Lots of popular Youtube channels are by people who aren't very technically savvy. You can easily have 10 000 subscribers while only barely following how to make a video and upload it if there are 10 000 people out there who want that particular niche content. 100 000 is less common but not rare. That's a juicy target for a hijacker. The hijacker tricks the channel owner into giving them control. "Hi, YouTube Services here, great to see you're so successful. Can you go fill out this form and we'll upgrade you to Elite status". A day later, locked out of their account and unsure what's happening, the channel owner is frantic. If they're lucky they know other Youtubers and can get control back. Otherwise... they may just walk away. Meanwhile their subscribers are surprised to find that they're now subscribed to "Crypto investor update" or "Apple Genuis Bar" or whatever and it's bombarding them with videos they don't want. Every feature you give the channel is a feature hijackers will try to use to maximise their profitability. If they can replace old videos, they will, if they can edit them, they will. They can change titles and hide stuff so they do that immediately. If you're a channel owner: Buy two FIDO Security Keys. Use them to secure any accounts related to the channel then put one somewhere safe (maybe literally a safe if you have one) and keep the other like your house keys. Unlike other 2FA technologies, FIDO keys can't be phished. So short of you being dumb enough to literally Fedex your key to a bad guy (Do I need to say not to do that? Do not do that) there's no way to get tricked into letting them control your channel. But until we get to a world where this sort of defence is ubiquitous, every Youtube API feature has to be considered as to how you'll unwind it if the channel was hijacked.