6 ms·

In Response to the Markup’s Reporting, Some YouTubers Are Ditching the Platform

28 points by atg_abhishek 6y ago

Qahlel 6y ago
Why would you quit a forum where you can spread your ideas if you have no way to create an alternative?
- spoonjim 6y ago
  They can’t spread their ideas on YouTube either... the ones quoted have TENS of subscribers.
poopsmithe 6y ago
I skimmed over the article because I'm interested in what platform the content creators are switching to. Unfortunately I didn't see any other platform mentioned. I have been dreaming of a good youtube alternative for some time.
- dan1234 6y ago
  I think LBRY/Odysee[0] is an interesting one to watch. [0]https://lbry.com/ https://lbry.com/
- throwawaysea 6y ago
  Here is a list of YouTube alternatives: https://nordvpn.com/blog/youtube-alternatives/ https://nordvpn.com/blog/youtube-alternatives/ There's also Rumble (https://rumble.com/ https://rumble.com/), PeerTube (https://peer.tube/ https://peer.tube/), Odysee (https://odysee.com/ https://odysee.com/), and BitChute (https://www.bitchute.com https://www.bitchute.com) Unfortunately given that YouTube has large audiences, and a captive supply of advertisers, it will be hard for any of these alternatives to compete against those network effects and Google's massive capital. Of these, I think Rumble has been getting the most views since several prominent centrists and conservatives who've faced censorship on YouTube have started hosting their content there.
staticelf 6y ago
I can't say I'm fond of the BLM movement, but hey at least I still think they should be able to advertise if they wish. But I am kind of pleased that finally the censorship also hits left-leaning people as it previously was very dominated against more right leaning people. Maybe now we can finally agree that censorship is bad, whomever it hits.
- valvar 6y ago
  I'm sure this is just a mistake, an algorithmic mishap. It probably flagged the content as possibly racist. Alphabet's interests have always been in supporting social justice, BLM, etc, and censoring the other side. That's not likely to change soon.
- throwawaysea 6y ago
  Unfortunately that culture of protecting free speech for all, a classically liberal value, has been dying out. The ACLU used to be seen as the most staunch protector of free speech principles, but even they've changed (leadership, ideology) and now they don't value free speech either. See https://reason.com/podcast/2020/10/14/ira-glasser-would-todays-aclu-defend-the-speech-rights-of-nazis/ https://reason.com/podcast/2020/10/14/ira-glasser-would-toda... or https://reason.com/2018/06/21/aclu-leaked-memo-free-speech/ https://reason.com/2018/06/21/aclu-leaked-memo-free-speech/ for more details on that. But when even the most trusted defenders of free speech are wavering, I'm not surprised to see pervasive censorship elsewhere, like on platforms owned by big tech companies.
- rvz 6y ago
  They finally see it's a bad thing when it now happens to them. Which all the privacy and anti-censorship activists have been telling them for years and foreshadowed by the increased bans of the right leaning creators. It's like the chickens are cheering on the wolves that ate the other chickens that disagreed with them and now complaining that the same wolves are now going to eat them too. Google / YouTube are not on your side and are not your friends. They will not change and will only listen to their masters voice.
- redis_mlc 6y ago
  > I can't say I'm fond of the BLM movement Don't confuse the BLM concept with the BLM organization, which has admitted being proudly Marxist and corrupt (buying multi-millon dollar houses for family members.) From their donation page, "We appreciate your support of the movement and our ongoing fight to end state-sanctioned violence, liberate Black people, and end white supremacy forever."
Anon1096 6y ago
> We spoke to eight YouTubers who said they were quitting, each with relatively small followings of less than 2,000 YouTube subscribers apiece. One of the people interviewed had "a few dozen" followers on YouTube. I get that the original reporting on advertising blacklists may have been newsworthy, but this article in particular seems to have only been written to push an agenda. Less than 10 people with a combined reach probably in the 4 digits leaving YouTube is not noteworthy.
- spoonjim 6y ago
  One of the ways in which the “Fake News” term is earned is by taking inconsequential individuals like Youtubers with 30 followers or random Tweets and forming a “people are saying” narrative out of them.
  - yarcob 6y ago
    The first paragraph of the story explicitly mentions that this is about "small" youtubers. You could argue that the headline is clickbait, but if you actually read the article they don't try to hide the fact that these are not major youtubers. The article is more than just the headline. They did a lot of reporting, and it's an interesting article. Apparently Google changed their search tool to hide the fact that some terms are blocked. (I actually think that would be a better hook for the article, rather than report on small youtubers leaving the platform). Characterizing it as "fake news" because the headline is more general than it should be is really doing a disservice to public discourse. That would make almost all news "fake news", and I think we should reserve the term for articles that actually spreads lies, and not apply it to articles where the text doesn't quite live up to the headline. The term for that is clickbait.
    - username90 6y ago
      Headlines are news as well as most people don't read articles. Lies or misleading information in headlines is therefore also fake news. It doesn't matter that it is "technically correct", what matters is that they are intentionally spreading misinformation. I think it is ok to be harsh against everyone who intentionally spreads misinformation.
cpach 6y ago
Back in the 00s we would spread large files using BitTorrent. That option still exist. With today’s network speeds, downloading 30 minutes of video should be pretty fast.
- rvz 6y ago
  Exactly. It should be practical to do this on a larger scale to create a decentralised alternative to YouTube. The fact that it still exists, probably tells us that we should use this technology to its full potential since we need it more than ever these days.
- emblaegh 6y ago
  Sounds like that would be unreliable for smaller creators.
- cfn 6y ago
  Isn't that what PeerTube is?
- marcus_holmes 6y ago
  Streaming the content is simple, even as a single stream from an HTML page. You could create a blog page with embedded video in a couple of hours. Discoverability is the thing. How would anyone know your videos are there?
  - falcor84 6y ago
    >Discoverability is the thing. How would anyone know your videos are there? But is "The YouTube algorithm" really a good answer to that question? At the end of the day there's a lot more to building an audience. I agree that YouTube helps with that, but I think it has more to do with the user convenience rather than discoverability as such.
deadalus 6y ago
Youtube Alternatives : Centralized : Bitchute, Rumble, Odyssey(LBRY), DTube, Dailymotion, Vimeo Decentralized : Peertube

28 points by atg_abhishek 6y ago

Qahlel 6y ago

Why would you quit a forum where you can spread your ideas if you have no way to create an alternative?

spoonjim 6y ago
They can’t spread their ideas on YouTube either... the ones quoted have TENS of subscribers.

poopsmithe 6y ago

I skimmed over the article because I'm interested in what platform the content creators are switching to. Unfortunately I didn't see any other platform mentioned. I have been dreaming of a good youtube alternative for some time.

dan1234 6y ago
I think LBRY/Odysee[0] is an interesting one to watch. [0]https://lbry.com/ https://lbry.com/
throwawaysea 6y ago
Here is a list of YouTube alternatives: https://nordvpn.com/blog/youtube-alternatives/ https://nordvpn.com/blog/youtube-alternatives/ There's also Rumble (https://rumble.com/ https://rumble.com/), PeerTube (https://peer.tube/ https://peer.tube/), Odysee (https://odysee.com/ https://odysee.com/), and BitChute (https://www.bitchute.com https://www.bitchute.com) Unfortunately given that YouTube has large audiences, and a captive supply of advertisers, it will be hard for any of these alternatives to compete against those network effects and Google's massive capital. Of these, I think Rumble has been getting the most views since several prominent centrists and conservatives who've faced censorship on YouTube have started hosting their content there.

staticelf 6y ago

I can't say I'm fond of the BLM movement, but hey at least I still think they should be able to advertise if they wish. But I am kind of pleased that finally the censorship also hits left-leaning people as it previously was very dominated against more right leaning people. Maybe now we can finally agree that censorship is bad, whomever it hits.

valvar 6y ago
I'm sure this is just a mistake, an algorithmic mishap. It probably flagged the content as possibly racist. Alphabet's interests have always been in supporting social justice, BLM, etc, and censoring the other side. That's not likely to change soon.
throwawaysea 6y ago
Unfortunately that culture of protecting free speech for all, a classically liberal value, has been dying out. The ACLU used to be seen as the most staunch protector of free speech principles, but even they've changed (leadership, ideology) and now they don't value free speech either. See https://reason.com/podcast/2020/10/14/ira-glasser-would-todays-aclu-defend-the-speech-rights-of-nazis/ https://reason.com/podcast/2020/10/14/ira-glasser-would-toda... or https://reason.com/2018/06/21/aclu-leaked-memo-free-speech/ https://reason.com/2018/06/21/aclu-leaked-memo-free-speech/ for more details on that. But when even the most trusted defenders of free speech are wavering, I'm not surprised to see pervasive censorship elsewhere, like on platforms owned by big tech companies.
rvz 6y ago
They finally see it's a bad thing when it now happens to them. Which all the privacy and anti-censorship activists have been telling them for years and foreshadowed by the increased bans of the right leaning creators. It's like the chickens are cheering on the wolves that ate the other chickens that disagreed with them and now complaining that the same wolves are now going to eat them too. Google / YouTube are not on your side and are not your friends. They will not change and will only listen to their masters voice.
redis_mlc 6y ago
> I can't say I'm fond of the BLM movement Don't confuse the BLM concept with the BLM organization, which has admitted being proudly Marxist and corrupt (buying multi-millon dollar houses for family members.) From their donation page, "We appreciate your support of the movement and our ongoing fight to end state-sanctioned violence, liberate Black people, and end white supremacy forever."

Anon1096 6y ago

> We spoke to eight YouTubers who said they were quitting, each with relatively small followings of less than 2,000 YouTube subscribers apiece. One of the people interviewed had "a few dozen" followers on YouTube. I get that the original reporting on advertising blacklists may have been newsworthy, but this article in particular seems to have only been written to push an agenda. Less than 10 people with a combined reach probably in the 4 digits leaving YouTube is not noteworthy.

spoonjim 6y ago
One of the ways in which the “Fake News” term is earned is by taking inconsequential individuals like Youtubers with 30 followers or random Tweets and forming a “people are saying” narrative out of them.
- yarcob 6y ago
  The first paragraph of the story explicitly mentions that this is about "small" youtubers. You could argue that the headline is clickbait, but if you actually read the article they don't try to hide the fact that these are not major youtubers. The article is more than just the headline. They did a lot of reporting, and it's an interesting article. Apparently Google changed their search tool to hide the fact that some terms are blocked. (I actually think that would be a better hook for the article, rather than report on small youtubers leaving the platform). Characterizing it as "fake news" because the headline is more general than it should be is really doing a disservice to public discourse. That would make almost all news "fake news", and I think we should reserve the term for articles that actually spreads lies, and not apply it to articles where the text doesn't quite live up to the headline. The term for that is clickbait.
  - username90 6y ago
    Headlines are news as well as most people don't read articles. Lies or misleading information in headlines is therefore also fake news. It doesn't matter that it is "technically correct", what matters is that they are intentionally spreading misinformation. I think it is ok to be harsh against everyone who intentionally spreads misinformation.

cpach 6y ago

Back in the 00s we would spread large files using BitTorrent. That option still exist. With today’s network speeds, downloading 30 minutes of video should be pretty fast.

rvz 6y ago
Exactly. It should be practical to do this on a larger scale to create a decentralised alternative to YouTube. The fact that it still exists, probably tells us that we should use this technology to its full potential since we need it more than ever these days.
emblaegh 6y ago
Sounds like that would be unreliable for smaller creators.
cfn 6y ago
Isn't that what PeerTube is?
marcus_holmes 6y ago
Streaming the content is simple, even as a single stream from an HTML page. You could create a blog page with embedded video in a couple of hours. Discoverability is the thing. How would anyone know your videos are there?
- falcor84 6y ago
  >Discoverability is the thing. How would anyone know your videos are there? But is "The YouTube algorithm" really a good answer to that question? At the end of the day there's a lot more to building an audience. I agree that YouTube helps with that, but I think it has more to do with the user convenience rather than discoverability as such.

deadalus 6y ago

Youtube Alternatives : Centralized : Bitchute, Rumble, Odyssey(LBRY), DTube, Dailymotion, Vimeo Decentralized : Peertube