Deleted My YouTube Channel(s). Why? Because Google is Evil
After over 15 years of being on YouTube, I deleted both of my channels. This included my Sims 3 channel, The Sims 1 Depot, which had videos going back at least a decade. I finally had enough.
This was not a rash decision. It's something I've been weighing for a long time but didn't do because I was hoping and praying that with a changeover in management, things would get better. However, as of 2025, things became worse. There are so many things that have become evil about YouTube but for the sake of brevity, I will drill my issues down to the following:
#1. YouTube Doubles Down on Hate and Divisive Content for the "Engagement"
Google has no interest in promoting wholesome content that's of interest to people in any community. It wholeheartedly promotes and supports incendiary, inflammatory content--as well as "drama" videos--over all other types of videos.
If you've ever been on YouTube for any subject--not just The Sims, but travel, sports, fashion, DIY, movies, TV shows, etc.--you'll notice that the more videos you watch and the longer you've been on the platform, the more bigoted content, inflammatory ragebait and drama gets pushed into your feed. No matter what the shills say, it has nothing to do with your viewing habits and there's absolutely nothing you can do to stop getting this content. It's all algorithms. You can click "Not Interested" a million times, downvote a million times, hide channels, unsubscribe and try to subscribe to the types of content you want to watch. Doesn't matter. You will get served this content if you're on YouTube long enough:
None of this is conspiracy theory. It's something that thousands have observed and discussed over the years ad nauseum. Hatred and division is Google's "bread and butter" (makes the most money), so that's what it promotes and encourages to be produced on its platform:
#2. Google's Algorithm Invites Trolls to Target YouTubers
Google recruits trolls, via algorithms, to target specific YouTubers based on their race, gender or nationality. One of the worst examples--and a major factor in me deciding to quit YouTube--was what happened to FakeGamerGirl. A simmer of Arab descent, she started getting targeted by a lot of racists on YouTube. The hate campaigns got so bad that she decided to quit.
Keep in mind that there aren't rabid anti-Arab racists in The Sims community. What YouTube did was deliberately serve her content to bigots via the side feed and home page, regardless of whether they played The Sims or not. Those racists then flocked to her channel like bees to honey, pretending to be Sims 3 players when they never were.
This leads me to the other factor that played a major part in me quitting YouTube:
#3. The "Toxic Community" Lie
You know how conventional wisdom says that every single community has a toxic fanbase, which can explain all the virulent racism, sexism and homophobia? As long as I've been on the internet (since 1999), I know that this is a lie. What Big Tech does is help and in some cases encourage trolls from various extremist camps to raid communities. It then covers its tracks by claiming that these racists, trolls and bigots were an intrinsic part of these "communities" from the start and that it's just a natural thing for every fanbase on the planet to turn into a toxic hate-filled stew.
How do I know the whole "toxic fandom" thing is a lie? For one, when it's very obvious that a fandom has been raided, Big Tech does nothing about it until a major sponsor pulls out or the whole thing threatens to turn into a PR nightmare. For instance, Amazon and Rotten Tomatoes kept silent when various factions from Stormfront, 4chan and other platforms openly bragged and raided user reviews and the IMDB forums until their behavior hit mainstream media. But until then, you could've pressed the "report" button until the cows came home and nothing would happen.
Another reason why I know that Big Tech companies like Google invites raids is when you start comparing notes from every so-called "toxic fandom", you notice a pattern. Whether it's The Sims, Disney, Star Wars, Star Trek, Rick and Morty, comic book movies, etc. every toxic fandom sounds exactly the same, speaks in the same voice. It doesn't make sense, considering that so many of these fandoms cater to radically different demographics with particular worldviews. But go figure, Star Wars and Star Trek--two progressive IPs that had minority captains and female badasses--has a rabid misogynistic and racist fanbase that sounds exactly like the same misogynistic and racist fanbase for She Ra: Princess of Power, Disney Films and Velma. Does every fanbase has its toxic fandom, or is it just that Big Tech deliberately opens them up to extremist camps?
#4. YouTube Algorithm's Toxic Influence on Creator Ecosystem
Another factor that made me decide to quit YouTube is the corrosive impact that the algorithm has on the ecosystem. I've seen this happen time and time again: channels that started off so wholesome, helpful and informative over time going down the rabbit hole of dog whistles, racism, racebaiting and conspiracy theories when the YouTube algorithm punishes them. The algorithm has such allure that even people who have no business going down it will jump on the bandwagon.
Meanwhile, the YouTubers trying to avoid all of this have been getting increasingly buried under tons of Alt Right, Redpill and drama-based content, to where it's a chore to find them using search. I can't remember the last time I saw a legit video game or movie review in my feed, but there'll be tons of Clownfish TV, Critical Drinker and other assholes being recommended all the time.
#5. No Escaping the Evil, Toxic Algorithm No Matter What You Watch
By 2025, I was pretty much done with YouTube. Yet I was still wavering in my decision to close my channels. However, in June, I finally experienced the straw that broke the camel's back.
After a death in the family, I needed to just take some time off to decompress. So, I decided to take a cruise. Because I'm a first timer, I watched a bunch of cruise videos from YouTube to get a feel for things.
Harmless, right? So what do you think happened after a few months of watching videos about cruising? Literally, in the week leading up to my cruise, I started to get a large batch of thinly veiled racist videos in my feed about Carnival Cruises. Then, almost as if YouTube could tell I was avoiding them, the videos I got served became even more racist. It was as if the algorithm went, "Look at all of these fights on Carnival (wink wink, nudge nudge, look at what race they are, wink, wink, nudge, nudge)..." to, "Oh? These videos aren't capturing your attention enough, so let's just pushing blatantly racist videos, with titles about 'ghetto' and 'ratchet' behavior ruining Carnival. That'll really catch your attention!"
When I came back from my cruise, I unsubscribed from every cruise channel so I wouldn't keep getting racist Carnival Cruise videos in my feed anymore. Then this happened. A few days ago, I watched a local news story about a hit-and-run in NYC, and 99% of the comments were racist comments about blacks and Carnival Cruise. It was almost as if YouTube went, "Oh, how cute. I see what you did there. First you avoided this racist meme by not clicking on the videos in your feed. Then you unsubscribed to all the cruise channels. Okay, you're from NYC. Here's a totally unrelated news story about a hit and run in NYC, but where almost all of the comments are raging about blacks on Carnival Cruise."
Like I said: no escaping the algorithm, no escaping the evil that is YouTube. So, I called it quits. I closed my channels and am walking away for good. It's so obvious that Google is using YouTube as a front to serve incendiary content and that contributors posting in good faith have been nothing but dupes whose content gets used to grease the algorithms that serve this content.
I refuse to be a dupe or become a party to this, so I've pulled out. It's been a great run, but as the great Danny Glover once said:
Apologies to anyone who enjoyed my channel and subscribed to me all these years. Again, quitting YouTube wasn't a rash decision, and I hope that someday soon we can meet again under a different, much better video sharing platform, where the emphasis is on fun, creativity and positivity, not the toxic wasteland that is YouTube now.
Till then--
