You mean like introducing ever increasing ad loads and removing background playback to a premium tier to create “value” for subscriptions while simultaneously trying to resurrect cable television despite the Internet being a thing, for example?

I love how hard people will advocate for their YouTube subscriptions like it’s the best thing ever.

YouTube’s recent changes are so Hollywood entertainment exec-esque lately (hey you got to make earnings at all costs!), as they gradually enshitify the Internet’s most popular and important content type, and they can do pretty much whatever they want because, really, they are an effective monopoly for UGC video delivery.

People LOVE espousing their “ad free subscriptions” and rail about the cost of video infrastructure, because they probably don’t remember when copyright broke down and there was a glimmer of the lack of false scarcity digital delivery actually could have created. You can’t download a car.

Google and Comcast literally were the ones who killed off peer-to-peer and decentralized solutions and made sure no competitor emerged. Bram Cohen had it right, but freedom scared big tech and video killed the radio star.

But please tell me how awesome YouTube “ad free” accounts are. In the meantime, enjoy shorts!

I miss the free Internet and actual disruptive innovation so much.

Enshittification is becoming a big deal on YouTube. The set of topics that YouTubers need to walk on eggshells around in order to avoid being demonitized is getting out of control, and is becoming increasingly reminiscent of the sort of constant, normalized self-censorship that's accepted as the norm on the internet in China. And it's entirely driven by the whims of advertisers.

But, also, I feel like they've sort of got me as a captive audience right now because YouTube's the only video platform that has a sizable international creator base.