#mod quantum

[youtube-privacy-union]

Petitions to sign if you care about internet privacy and freedom of speech

Change.org

YouTube’s AI Tracks Everything You Watch — Stop This Now

YouTube - SAY NO TO FLAWED AGE VERIFICATIONS!

Stop YouTube's AI Age Verification Update

Defend the Internet Archive

iPetitions

Petition for YouTube to reconsider its new AI age verification plan

Fight for the Future

Stop Online ID Checks

Congress: Say No to Bad Internet Bills

Tell Congress: Protect Privacy

Google: Stop Endangering Abortion Seekers

Stop YouTube's ID Checks

Stop The Take It Down Act: Protect DMs and Free Speech

American Civil Liberties Union

Mastercard: Sex Work is Work. End Your Unjust Policy.

Combat Antisemitism, Not Free Speech

Keep DOGE Out of Our Data

UK Government and Parliament

Repeal the Online Safety Act

Australia

OSA petition

Email template for senate

The email's are only open to the 22nd so keep that in mind. Also I think you need to be an Australian citizen to do either thing

Some of these may not be available in all areas. Do what you can <2

[youtube-privacy-union]

It has officially been two months since the beginning of the YouTube boycott. Thank you and congratulations to everyone who is still sticking it out!

If you haven't heard about the boycott, or haven't participated, it's not too late to join us! The main petition can be found here, and more information about the boycott can be found in the pinned post, as well as links for the FAQ and the Alternatives Directory.

Remember, privacy is a human right!

Enjoy some more fun art, free to use as always! (Credits are appreciated, or you can link back to the petition!)

[youtube-privacy-union]

Q: Is the boycott working?

A: Yes!

Full answer below

There have been reports from various people that YouTube is advertising on other platforms, something they have not done historically [1]. There have also been reports from individuals that they have been receiving emails with promo codes for discounted YouTube Premium or YouTube TV, which also has not been done historically [2]. Some users think they've been experiencing an increase in the number of notifications they've been receiving. YouTube actually published a video attempting to defend the AI age-estimation policy. YouTube also seems to be giving itself bot 5-star reviews filled with nonsense word salad on the app store [3].

YouTube seems to be scrambling to get people to stay on the platform. If that isn't enough for you, keep in mind that YouTube is owned by Google. Google is a big company. It will take time to really affect them, but if we keep this up, sooner or later things will have to change. They can't make money without us. They need us, but we don't need them. Boycotts take time.

Full links and screenshots of sources

[1]: https://www.tumblr.com/quantumboogaloo/792859054691237888/youtube-trying-real-hard-to-get-people-to-download

[2]: https://www.tumblr.com/ericaportfolio/792057624652857344/i-just-said-three-days-as-a-possible-theory-to-see

[3]: https://www.tumblr.com/quantumboogaloo/792092417206697984/part-two-of-weird-nonsense-spam-youtube-reviews-on

[youtube-privacy-union]

YouTube and Other Alternatives Directory

Please note, this document is a work-in-progress. It will be updated often to keep up to date and provide as many alternatives as possible.

Why?

YouTube recently enforced a new AI-powered age-estimation and age-verification policy. The AI will look at user watch history, and attempt to guess if the user is an adult. Any user the AI deems as a non-adult will have their account locked down into teen mode unless the user can prove they are an adult via credit card or government ID.

This directory is intended to provide feasible alternatives for various platorms that are implementing similar policies that may put user's privacy and security at risk. Alternatives on this list must not have similar AI-powered age-estimation and age-verification policies, must be free or reasonably priced, and must not push AI. Some may have generative AI features, but as long as it is not actively pushing AI on users, they will be considered. Further notes for consideration will be labelled under each item as necessary.

All of the following sites have implemented or plan to implement similar policies, and should be avoided if at all possible

YouTube

Google (including Chrome, Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc)

TikTok

Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and Whatsapp)

Twitter/X

Bluesky (only in the UK)

Spotify

Reddit

Discord (only in the UK)

Dailymotion

Xbox (only in the UK)

Twitch (only in the UK)

Quick Reference Guide

These symbols are used to quickly communicate some basic information about the alternatives on this list.

💝 - Free, or its paid tier is unnecessary

📵 - Not recommended for moblie

✒️- No AI features

🌐 - Website, no download required

🍎 - Has an app for iOS

🤖 - Has an app for Android

🍏 - Has a download for macOS

🪟 - Has a download for Windows

🐧 - Has a download for Linux

🛡️- Adblocker Recommended

Links to individual alternatives lists

General Recommendations

YouTube Alternatives

Chrome Browser Alternatives

Google Search Engine Alternatives

Gmail Alternatives

Google Play Store Alternatives

Google Suite Alternatives

Google Docs Alternatives

Google Slides Alternatives

Google Sheets Alternatives

Google Translate Alternatives

Google Drive Alternatives

Google Maps Alternatives

Spotify/Music Alternatives

Kindle/Audible Alternatives

Discord Alternatives

Whatsapp Alternatives

Twitter/X/Bluesky Alternatives

Reddit Alternatives

Instagram Alternatives

TikTok Alternatives

YouTube Downloaders

YouTube Front-Ends/Proxies

[youtube-privacy-union]

Q: How can I watch The Amazing Digital Circus without giving YouTube traffic?

A: Internet Archive (links below) or if a friend has the episodes downloaded!

Entire playlist (Eps 1-6)

[youtube-privacy-union]

Q: Are any big creators talking about this?

A: Yes!

Most obviously, Louis Rossmann made the video titled "Change your profile picture to clippy. I'm serious", which is why we are now using Clippy and paperclips in general as a logo for the YouTube boycott. He has continued to make videos in opposition of invasive policies across tech companies as a whole, but they are all on YouTube, unfortunately.

CaptainSparklez made a video discussing these sorts of policies on the internet as a whole.

Athena P is supporting the boycott, trying to reach out to journalists, and is uploading videos to Glomble.

Bettina Levy is supporting and participating in the boycott, and has stopped uploading on YouTube.

Deep Humor has been consistently making videos about the boycott and how to fight YouTube's new age-estimation/age-verification policy.

[youtube-privacy-union]

I haven't checked in on the boycott in a while, for the sake of not overwhelming myself (made that mistake the first two weeks it originally started), but out of curiosity how much progress have we made? Even just a little is awesome

It’s hard to say, really, because Google/YouTube intentionally obfuscates it. I think they want to pretend that this is a good thing, and are refusing to admit it might have any flaws. I (Quantum) have a cryptpad spreadsheet where I’ve been tracking socialblade data for over 200 channels, and views have been steadily decreasing for several weeks.

YouTube seems to be blaming this on adblockers, but that doesn’t make sense. Up until now, adblockers didn’t affect views on videos. Whether you watched with an adblocker or not, the video still gained a view. So if adblockers are to blame, then YouTube would have made a change on their end and stopped counting views when an adblocker is involved. That would not be the fault of adblockers, that would be the fault of YouTube. The other alternative is that more people are using front ends and alternatives, and YouTube is experiencing a decrease in viewership.

Regardless, YouTube’s viewership is almost definitely on the decline, whether that’s due to the boycott or not or a combination of factors is not determinable. Correlation does not equate causation, but it is something to consider.

What we do know is this: YouTube views are on the decline and have been for over a month. YouTube has done a lot of things in the past months to potentially cause people to move away from them, including the age verification policy, AI dubbing without creator consent, AI editing on shorts without creator consent, and more.

[youtube-privacy-union]

Q: I don't care about "traffic." How do we affect YouTube's profits?

A: Well, for YouTube, traffic almost directly translates to profits (it just takes a little time).

YouTube doesn't make their money from video hosting. The most obvious way that YouTube brings in revenue is paid services, such as YouTube TV, YouTube Premium, channel memberships, tips, etc. But they make their money via advertising, same as their parent company, Google. And YouTube is able to convince advertisers to advertise on their platform via your traffic.

The more traffic YouTube gets, the more slots they can sell to advertisers, and the more they can boast about their high traffic. By refusing to engage with the platform, we can remove any money they could potentially make off of us.

Traffic does not directly give YouTube profit, but when looking at a something as complicated as this, it's important to keep the big picture in mind. Remember, if a service is free, then you are the product. By taking away the amount of product YouTube can sell to advertisers, we obviously decrease their revenue. It just takes a bit of time.