Ok, so I know this isn't really my regular thing, but it kind of is because I think I've been pretty clear on my stance on censorship and AI and big companies and the government overstepping their boundaries, so I'm going to talk about it.
so, as some of you may have heard, Youtube has announced that they are going to start trying out a new AI age detection policy, and anyone who the AI suspects might be a minor based on what they watch and other algorithmic things will have their account flagged and be limited on what they can and can't see/do on the app and website.
Penguinz0 and a few others have already made videos talking about it and voicing some valid concerns, and admittedly, it's only through videos like this that I heard about it all.
I had no idea that the UK had even had that law passed, but now that I have, I also agree that it's fucked up.
The YouTube age detector AI is set to hit the US on August 13th, and though I myself am not an American citizen, I find this incredibly concerning. If this goes forward unencumbered, I'm sure it will come to my country next as well, so I do consider it my concern.
I looked it up, and apparently, it is somehow legal for YouTube to request your personal and sensitive information (like your ID or a selfie to help verify), though I don't believe it should be.
Regardless of my opinion, however, it's happening. starting on august 13th, American youtube accounts are going to start being monitored by a new experimental AI trying to find out how old the user is based on what they watch, explicitly ignoring whatever the accounts stated age is, and if its wrong, the only way to regain full access to your account is to fork over a piece of ID.
The excuse they are giving is that it's to "protect kids", but if they really cared about protecting children, they would have put effort into managing the adult content on their site with actual review and cleaned up their YouTube kids app so that THAT is actually appropriate for children instead of somehow worse(??)
I'd like to make it clear that I believe it is important to keep inappropriate content out of the hands of children. I myself saw damaging things way too young and suffered for it for a long, long time, and I have younger sisters whom I want to spare from that suffering and protect at all costs; however, this is not the way to do that.
Don't let them tell you otherwise; this is not about protecting kids. This isn't about protecting anything but their own self-interest. This is about censorship, monitoring and control. It's fascist, and we need to fight back. Fight the banks trying to tell you how to spend your money, fight the VPN's that have given in to government pressure to add backdoor spyware into their products, and fight any and every social media platform that wants to demand you hand over your personal information.
I want to draw attention to how this is not just about YouTube; this is about the internet as a whole. This is about all of our privacy. This is about control, surveillance, and suppression of a place they currently cannot control like they can in the real world. I don't care if you think porn is bad, or if you think no child under the age of 18 should be allowed a social media account, or if you think this post was too long and boring to read. Just look at what the UK is going through right now. Look at what is happening, and please try to understand how much worse this is going to make everything for everyone. Much of our lives are digitized now, and we cannot afford to let our freedoms be taken away here as well.
It starts with our games, our videos, our music, and that might not seem like that big of a deal, but what about when it's our schools, our jobs and our transportation? Computers are a part of everything at this point. The further we allow this to go, the more screwed we are. I don't trust them any further than they've earned, and they've earned nothing. And if you think I'm just being anxious and paranoid about all this, I hope you're right. I don't want to throw around words like "Fascist" and "Dystopian" around, but it really, really is.
"Rights aren't rights if they can be taken away. They're Privileges." -George Carlin.
We shouldn't have to fight for our privacy, but we do.
If you are in the UK, sign this petition to get the Online Safety Act revisited and hopefully rolled back.
If you are in Canada (like me), please check out this petition to stop Bill C-11, The Online Streaming Act.
And if you are American, please check out this petition on the Kids Online Safety Act.
Finally, there is this petition to stop YouTube's new rollout specifically.
Make sure to do your own research on everything, learn your country's rights because they probably aren't the same as America's, and never shut up about any of this.
Back to YouTube being fucking awful, let's try some alternate clients, shall we?
FreeTube is a feature-rich and user-friendly YouTube client with a focus on privacy.
ok, I know that was a lot. If I got anything wrong, please correct me, I just like a free internet. I love you, stay safe💕