(1) There is no single entity called "the backbone." (2) Yes, they do direct peering with ISPs whenever possible, but maintaining on-premise cache AND the "back

(1) There is no single entity called "the backbone." (2) Yes, they do direct peering with ISPs whenever possible, but maintaining on-premise cache AND the "backbone" is not a trivial matter, nor free They're paying a marginal cost compared to us plebs, yeah, but definitely not "free", especially when YT is allegedly responsible for 1/6th of global internet traffic