How do we replace YouTube?
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How do we replace YouTube?
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Hi, my post is focusing specifically on YouTube since I observed the following categories have less intrusive solutions or privacy focused solutions, even if they are paid:

  • Operating Systems (Linux, for example)
  • Instant Messaging (Element, for example)
  • Community Messaging (Revolt, for example)
  • E-Mail (Proton, for example)
  • Office (libreoffice, for example)
  • Password Managers (Bitwarden, for example)

However, how do we distribute videos and watch them without data collection? I am NOT asking how do I use a privacy-focused front-end for YouTube, by the way, I am aware they exist.

I am wondering how we obtain a FOSS solution to something super critical such as YouTube. It is critical since it contains a lot of educational content (I’d wager more than any other platform), and arguably the most informative platform, despite having to filter through a lot of trash. During COVID, we even saw lecturers from universities upload their content on YouTube and telling students to watch those lectures. (I have first-hand experience with this at a respectable university).

I refuse to accept that there is nothing we can do about it.

@mrpants@midwest.social
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I think the largest challenge though is maintaining the distribution and managing the associated upfront costs.

Existing large content producers could likely afford to handle this but new producers could struggle paying to seed their content.

Though I do think overall this is more achievable than people give it credit for:

  • YT videos don’t need huge bandwidth for a sustained period; only for short bursts. Most views come in within a week.
  • Content is probably localized to specific countries. Less need to replicate across the globe.
  • Let the source prefer to seed the highest quality and other peers downsample and replicate as needed.
  • Doesn’t need YT scale. Tons of YT “content” is spammers leeching essentially free hosting from YT. No one needs to seed their videos if they don’t want to.
  • 1080p is still fine for YT videos. h265 is very efficient (though downsampling 265 isn’t great). Don’t need 4k for most videos.
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