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Thank you for your important work fighting this battle, it must be exhausting. The more Google insists on forcing advertising on us, the more we should look cl
by akersten 1y ago
Thank you for your important work fighting this battle, it must be exhausting.
The more Google insists on forcing advertising on us, the more we should look closely at the wildly inappropriate and downright scammy ads they are hosting. If they can't leave well enough alone and look the other way on ad blocking, (which is the only way to avoid exposing myself and family to these dangerous ads), they need to be under a lot more scrutiny for the ads they choose to run.
- dbbk 1y agoYour position is that you should be able to use YouTube completely for free then? How is that financially sustainable?
- aprilthird2021 1y agoCue a long list of people who will say "I would pay for Premium except X Y and Z". The fact is free YouTube is only possible with ads, and potentially only with the extremely detested ads we're talking about here. The other major UGC video platform (Twitch) is not profitable. Broadcast TV and even cable or fixed content library streaming is A LOT cheaper to run than something like YouTube. I don't mean purely machine-wise, I also mean in terms of salaries, and those do matter to keep the service up and running, not to mention growing
- timmg 1y ago> The more Google insists on forcing advertising on us... You can... just not visit youtube, right?
- pixl97 1y agoI'm going to assume thats much more difficult than one would expect.
- RivieraKid 1y agoThey're a monopoly benefiting from network effects.
- cpitman 1y agoOr just pay for Youtube.... $8/ month gets rid of most of the ads in videos, $15/month to remove ads from music, shorts, and search results.
- conradfr 1y agoLite is not available everywhere, also those streaming services basically up their price every year, like we're frogs.
- gardnr 1y agoI had YouTube Lite for a couple years. They sent me an email saying it was being discontinued in my country. I had always been watching with an Ad Blocker. The main difference now is that they refuse to accept the money I am willing to pay them.
- al_borland 1y agoI pay for Premium, and have for several years now. The Lite version is not what anyone wanted. I want no ads on YouTube, without also paying for YouTube Music (which I never use). If $8/month still gets me random ads on some videos, it’s no good. I’m sure their thought was people would turn the normal YouTube app into their music player, but I’m not so sure. Eliminating background play from Lite may solve that well enough. I’d be fine with that as a compromise. I watch a lot of music related content on YouTube that isn’t stuff I’d just listen to in a music app, that I think would get caught my the music filter. On the Apple TV, videos it thinks are music don’t show comments (even when there are comments on the website). I assume all those videos would get ads on the Lite subscription, and there are a lot of them. I’ve tried cancelling my subscription, thinking it would make me watch less YouTube. I didn’t last 48 hours. The ads were too annoying and I signed back up.
- arrosenberg 1y agoBundling services is another mode of anticompetitive behavior that Google/Youtube use to obscure their pricing.
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- akersten 1y agoHarder than it sounds! So much of what we interact with online winds up with YouTube in the dependency chain. Kids' coursework, how-to videos, etc. I could also just pay the $$/month to "solve" this problem, but I need my petty cash more than Google does. I'm confident the brilliant minds there can figure out how to monetize my visit even without the real-time bidding industrial complex burning my CPU cycles.
- grugagag 1y agoDownload the content offline, make a playlist. You can also archive the content forever. No distractions, its organized however you want. Yes, it does take some effort but it fixes all the problems
- free_bip 1y agoSo long as we're pretending to care about the Youtube TOS, offline downloading without premium is against their TOS. And even then you're only permitted to download and view offline through the YouTube phone app.
- grugagag 1y agoI care about their TOS as much as they care about their users
- akoboldfrying 1y ago> I need my petty cash more than Google does I appreciate the fact that you brought up the possibility of paying for ad-free content, but frankly I don't buy this. You can either see 100% of the content for free with some mildly annoying ad content mixed in from time to time, or you can pay them a pretty small amount to not see the annoyances. Google is a for-profit company trying to sell a product that you find valuable. Not everything they do is squeaky-clean, but this offering couldn't be much fairer, really.
- jmbwell 1y agoI was visiting my kid’s class one day. They were using some YouTube product that seemed oriented at schools, that I’d never seen before. An ad would pop up, and one of the kids (whosever turn it was next?) would run up and tap the skip ad button. So even if you’re trying to use YouTube for something of value, you’re battling ads. Or at least our kids are.
- petepete 1y agoI hope there's no ads before educational videos on how to do CPR or perform the Heimlich manoeuvre!
- johnisgood 1y agoWell, first you have to log in. And yeah, there are ads even in such videos. :D
- denkmoon 1y agoYou can also just not watch TV. And not listen to the radio. And not receive newspapers. All mediums that have advertisements, and those advertisements are regulated to stop the most egregious types (eg. advertising sugary foods at children, tobacco products, hopefully gambling products soon). Media, on the whole, is a good thing. We know more about the world. We know more about the excesses of the aristocracy. We know more about the violence committed by violent people (and I don't mean local petty crime. Genocide.) Before we can improve these things, we need to know about them. "just don't consume media" is a regression to a time where people knew little outside their local sphere. Youtube/Google has a monopoly on one part of the modern media landscape and it has to be fixed. Not just put our heads in the sand.
- mitthrowaway2 1y agoYouTube shows ads that would never be allowed on network television, including tobacco advertisements. They can get away with it because it's hard for regulators to observe.
- randcraw 1y agoNo. Youtube is a monopoly. For a huge amount pf historical video, they are the only game in town. Regulating the hell out of them -- especially gigantic fines for the insane amount of copyright piracy their business model depends upon -- is LONG overdue.
- pjc50 1y agoYes, although the problem is that trying to regulate them out of existence will destroy the archive. Especially if you try to insist on copyright traceability.
- jiggawatts 1y agoIt's incredible to me how YouTube has an uncountable number of "movie clip" and "TV show clip" channels with randomly generated names, to the point that you can watch pretty much any movie end-to-end, but people lose their minds about AI training using books.
- Workaccount2 1y agoRead up on vid.me, which broke YouTube's "monopoly" back in 2016-2017. Seriously, go see what happened to them. Turns out everyone complaining about YouTube, when given the option to jump to a new fresh user focused service, still blocks ads and refuses subscriptions. This thread, and the hundreds like it, are why people nope the fuck out when considering creating a YT competitor.
- someone7x 1y agoYou seem so certain on the betrayal of the content-creators. > Read up on vid.me, which broke YouTube's "monopoly" back in 2016-2017 Okay, sounds interesting. > May 21 (Reuters) - Alphabet's (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Google has persuaded a federal judge in California to reject a lawsuit from video platform Rumble (RUM.O), opens new tab accusing the technology giant of illegally monopolizing the online video-sharing market. I see what I expected: that google cheated and got away with it. Where is the betrayal? https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/google-defeats-rumbles-antitrust-lawsuit-over-video-sharing-market-2025-05-21/ https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/google-defeats-rumb...
- mullingitover 1y ago> Thank you for your important work fighting this battle, it must be exhausting. Indeed, if there was a 'thin adblock writer line' flag it'd already be on my bumper. Than you for your service, we salute you.
- yugioh3 1y agopeople deserve to get paid for the work they put into creating content and building platforms, no? books, movies, tv shows, news, etc, are all distributed in some way or another that costs the consumer either money or their time viewing advertising. if you don't want to watch ads, pay YouTube for a subscription.
- scbzzzzz 1y agoMy major problem with ads is the disrespect of my privacy. People deserve to get paid for the hard work they put. I have immense respect for creators . But at the same time, these yt creators are relying on google ads . Which are intrusive, doesn't acknowledge and care about privacy. If you turn on ad privacy, you see gambling, scams ,crypto ads. How is that responsible? You as a creator is ok with getting money and ok with indirectly making people addicted, fall for scams? That's not right. I am ok with sponser ads and am against sponsorblock. They are not tracking me, violating my privacy and telling me about new products . youtube subscription doesn't stop youtube for collecting you data and use it for ads during other google service .
- mystified5016 1y agoYou're right, someone has to pay to make these AI generated ads for fake boner pills in the middle of my documentary. Won't someone think of the poor ad creators?
- mitthrowaway2 1y agoYouTube spent about a decade and a half running unintrusive banner ads. Until they secured enough of the market that network effects locked content creators and consumers together in a two-sided market where it's hard for either group to leave unilaterally. Then they ramped up the length and intrusiveness of their ads while flouting content regulations on what they're even allowed to advertise. Why should I reward that by paying them?
- cebert 1y agoOk, well either pay or don’t use YouTube then if you don’t want ads.
- SequoiaHope 1y agoI resisted paying for premium (out of spite) until very recently and only because my girlfriend complained. I have been astounded at how scammy those ads are. There is a major class of ads that make fairly significant bullshit medical claims and I’m semi convinced the purpose is not for someone to make money but to wage psychological warfare on vulnerable people. Another class of ads says “the US government is going to collapse and that’s why you should buy a freedom battery” and the ad couches itself as a battery advertisement but how many vulnerable people hear that in the background 16 times a day and don’t end up subconsciously accepting some part of it? In any case it’s all a manipulative cesspool and it’s bizarre to me that a property that Google otherwise values is willing to sling such slop at its users. I suspect a large part of this is that the executives who run YouTube never see their ads.
- mitthrowaway2 1y agoI've seen ads on YouTube that are straight-up illegal. Including ads for tobacco. And one that was a deepfake of the Canadian minister of finance pitching a crypto investment as being risk-free and backed by the government. Another that was a deepfake of Elon Musk saying he was going to give free money to people who click the link. YouTube will run anything because they know they won't get in trouble.
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- grugagag 1y agoScreencapture it and you may have a lawsuit
- Workaccount2 1y agoYou are getting those ads because you are likely not very well tracked, so you get the lowest tier ads. Most users are regular non-tech folks who are (unknowingly perhaps) well tracked and profiled. They (like my family members) get normal big name ads like you see on TV.
- dylan604 1y ago> we should look closely at the wildly inappropriate and downright scammy ads they are hosting This is one of the things that kills me. Even in broadcasting TV, you get typical :15, :30, :60 ads with the occasional :45 or longer :90. The ad pods are also defined so that you get a set number say something like 3:00 max. YT has scammy ads where if you are just trying to let something stream in the background while you focus on other things where an ad plays past the 5s skippable time, they have some that are full on half hour if not even longer infomercials that takes completely out of the flow of whatever you were watching. That's down right criminal to me. The fact that long form content can be used as something that interrupts someone else's content is such a strange thing to allow. They must pay out the nose for those ad impressions
- socalgal2 1y agoYou realize don't have to watch youtube right? I'm not saying I like it. I'm saying that because I don't like it I don't watch.
- dylan604 1y agoThat's such a low effort bit of criticism of me calling out their scammy behavior. Yes, I could not watch, but that does nothing to solve the actual problem. By ignoring the problem, you're just giving them the okay to continue with scammy behavior. If they behaved like normal broadcasters and had standards on what ads they showed, I'd have much less of a problem. Some of the content that theGoogs allows and accepts and distributes is appalling. Being unable to accept critical comments and just brush them off with "just don't watch" is just really not appropriate. You can also just not reply to comments on HN when you don't have anything that contributes the conversation, but yet you chose not to do that yourself.
- manquer 1y agoOPs statement should be modified to “ you don’t have to watch free Youtube “, You can always pay for it and not have any ads . There shouldn’t be an expectation that a free service should confirm to any standards ? Why should a service be free and of high quality in its free variant ? If Google refuses to offer a paid version or made it unaffordable then it would be different , but the paid version is pretty affordable with lower pricing in countries with less purchasing power
- hansvm 1y agoI'm shocked and appalled that you'd call the "virtual harems" YouTube tries to get me to install either scammy or wildly inappropriate. I've reported them a dozen times, and they're still on the platform, so I'm sure Lord Google knows something I don't about their saintlihood. /s
- cyberax 1y agoI'm sorry, but Youtube got to keep its servers up somehow and pay the content creators. This means ads. If you don't like them, then pay for Youtube Premium and you can get ad-free experience. Although if it's not available in your country, then adblocking is a reasonable approach.
- jfoster 1y agoThe sheer resistance to paying for YouTube Premium is proving the need for ads.
- hirvi74 1y agoYouTube has an estimated worth, if it were a stand-alone company, of $475 billion to $550 billion. I'm sure they'll survive off just fine continuing to sell my personal information just like that always have.
- jfoster 1y agoYes, it's a perfectly suitable model. I don't have a problem with it. (but I do use YouTube frequently enough that I decided to pay for premium)
- Mindwipe 1y agoGoogle do not, and literally never have "sold your personal information." They deliver targeted advertising due to the information they have. That's the model. They make literally zero dollars a year selling personal information.
- madeforhnyo 1y agoSource? Google is literally an online ad monopoly, and being sued for it. They did track and continue tracking users, and they sell data though their SSP, DSP, ad networks, ad exchanges they own.
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- okdood64 1y agoOr just pay for Premium... No one's forcing you to do anything.
- inetknght 1y agoWait until Google shows ads in premium too. Paid-for cable TV did the same rugpull decades ago.
- jfoster 1y agoSo what's your argument? That YouTube shouldn't exist, or that it should be a charity? Something else?
- morsch 1y agoBoth sound like good options to me. Split it up or turn it into a nonprofit. Although I suppose the former would man paying 15 bucks to each baby YouTube, so maybe not.
- Freak_NL 1y agoHow about advertising without the tracking? Advertising not shown specifically to me because of any attributes Google thinks apply to me? Advertising limited to a 5s lead in at the start of the video (today, this video is sponsored by …) and a static banner hidden when going full-screen. Advertising held to high standards, and advertising which can be vetoed by the video's uploader. In short, ethical advertising. Google can surely figure this out and still turn a profit on Youtube. Greed stops them from doing this.
- tptacek 1y agoOr, you could just honor the terms you clearly understand the content is being offered under, and just not use the service. Not as fun to write about as coercion is, though.
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- asadotzler 1y agoOr you could instead give them the middle finger and take anything they put out there. TOS are not binding contracts and until you're contractually bound to do otherwise, taking what they're handing out is completely reasonable.
- dctoedt 1y ago> TOS are not binding contracts American courts have had no difficulty in holding that TOS are binding IF done correctly. It wouldn't be prudent to imagine that YouTube's lawyers don't know how to do that. Santa Clara Law professor Eric Goldman knows approximately everything about this subject. He posts frequent updates on his blog. https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/category/licensingcontracts https://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/category/licensingcont...
- tptacek 1y agoAlright, but when they give the middle finger back at you in other ways, you made your bed.
- Waterluvian 1y agoIt’s absolutely #%^*ing insane how bad and often inappropriate the ads are, to the point that I swear YouTube is in growth trouble. It feels like there’s just management layers who need their bonus or promotion, driven by some percent growth or some KPI so their standards are at the floorboards. I’ve seen porn in the still frame ads on mobile once (much worse than Evony Online if you remember those ads…)
- snailmailman 1y agoI have all ad targeting features turned off on my account - which I assume means i unfortunately get the bottom-of-the-barrel ads. The still frame ads are always NSFW games or ads for viagra-like products. In shorts, the ads are always scams of some kind. Usually deepfakes of elon musk “giving investment advice” but also “medical experts” recommending likely dangerous scams, or “free money the government isnt telling you about” if you give them all your information, or weird ai generated videos advertising mystery products that certainly don’t actually exist. In front of (and in the middle of) actual videos, it’s a mix of the all the scams, plus the occasional ad for a legitimate product, but rarely in my native language. Usually Spectrum internet ads exclusively in spanish. I got a gun ad a few times several months ago. Advertising features such as “no license required” and “easy to sneak through security”. As blatantly illegal as it was, the ad ran for at least a full month. I reported it every time I saw it, but I’m convinced those reports aren’t ever viewed by anyone. I continue blocking these ads on my desktop without remorse. I only encounter the ads on my iPhone.
- wincy 1y agoYouTube has decided that my family is African American and Spanish speaking at some point, and nothing will convince them otherwise. We are neither of those things. At one point a few years ago my daughter wanted to listen to the Peppa Pig album in Spanish and I guess maybe that’s why? It’s crazy how bad and mistargeted it all is.
- ihsw 1y ago[dead]
- simianwords 1y agoIdk man instead of freeloading how about paying for the service? I generally avoid dismissive comments like these but I think it needs to be said. If you don’t like ads pay for the service. You don’t deserve content for free.
- noqc 1y agoYou are no more freeloading by ignoring the ads they serve you than by watching them.
- Lapel2742 1y agoI start paying them when they start paying me for my data.
- mystified5016 1y agoI don't think Google deserves money for ai generated ads for fake boner pills. Google already makes untold amounts of money from spying on me. Yesterday I started seeing new recommended videos related to a show I watched on my private jellyfin server. Google spies on me everywhere, tracks me across the open internet and my local network, then sells this data to whoever for God knows how much money and you want to tell me I owe Google even more money? Buddy you need some perspective.
- tonyedgecombe 1y agoEven if you pay for YouTube you will still see ads inserted by the content creators.
- aprilthird2021 1y agoSo what? It's still paying to see less ads. If ads bother you, pay
- tonyedgecombe 1y ago>If ads bother you, pay I have paid but I still see ads.
- AlienRobot 1y ago>forcing Why people say this? You can either not use Youtube or pay for premium. Nobody is forcing you to download hundreds and hundreds of gigabytes of video?
- Workaccount2 1y agoMaybe stop using Google services then? It's very straight forward to boycott something you don't agree with.