Why are we all cringing and waiting for the axe to fall, like a chicken with its head on the chopping block?
Why are we continuing to give Youtube and Facebook such power, taking it for granted as if God personally gave Youtube and other social media giants their power? God never said, "Thou art Youtube, and I give thee the keys of the Internet, to be arbiter of good and evil over all things spoken on it."
Imagine what would happen if a movement started, with a catchy slogan, where both VIEWERS and CONTENT CREATORS formally swore off Youtube? Deleting accounts and bookmarks, joining a competitor website to ease the withdrawal symptoms, and perhaps signing up on a website to keep track of who has pledged to leave Youtube? Such a website could showcase in a prominent place all the famous celebrities who have sworn off Youtube. Perhaps as an incentive, large personalities could get links to their new channels (on youtube competitors) and/or their own personal websites.
Sure, many sacrifices large and small would have to be made. Perhaps content providers would lose a few dollars. Maybe some providers would even lose serious money, at least in the beginning. Perhaps viewers would save a few minutes of time normally spent watching videos. But think of the possibilities long term, in slaying the youtube monster!
1. Content providers have their own audience. They are not invisible or unknown, and people would watch their shows on a different platform or dedicated website if that's what they had to do. Are viewers really willing to change their habits from watching conservatives to watching leftist liberals instead? What viewer is so impartial that he is willing to start watching Buzzfeed instead of Alex Jones? Or Rachel Maddow instead of Stephen Crowder? I don't think so.
1b. Virtually all large content providers already have alternate locations set up for hosting their videos. Why not finally heed their regular pleas to sign up on these alternate websites?
2. Continued hosting of content on Youtube is a bit lazy, as well as actually supporting the monster in many ways: directing traffic there, giving them a signficant share of ad revenue, etc. Youtube keeps 45% of the revenue generated by ads shown on your videos. Imagine 200 famous conservatives pulling in 100 million a year in advertising on Youtube. That means those 200 conservatives are collectively making a 95 million dollar donation to Youtube every year, albeit an involuntary one! Why? Isn't there a better way?
3. Large shows and personalities should be able to find their own advertisers, and they could keep 100% of it, which might make up for some of the "loss" of leaving Youtube/Google.
4. Actually, there is nothing saying they couldn't use Google AdSense to monetize their personal websites, at least in the short term. Has Google AdSense de-monetized (or demon-etized) anyone for political reasons yet? If not, let's dare them to do this!
5. Given the current state of Technology and the Internet, it should be easy to cut out Youtube. Do we really need Youtube, or even a site like youtube? Didn't they invent RSS feeds so that users can conveniently check feeds from many different sources?
6. Imagine the positive side: conservative personalities and shows removing their accounts from Youtube, including hundreds or thousands of videos EACH. Now people can't find those videos on Youtube at all; Youtube would be totally out of the loop from now on. Remember, a website is only as valuable as its content. Google and Bing search will now only return links to OTHER video services (Youtube competitors) to find those same videos.
7. On the Internet, content is king. Who has the content?
8. Traffic to a website comes because of content. How many people only visit Youtube because they think conservatives are still (more or less) welcome there? Would you go to Youtube if only a bunch of leftist zealots were found there? I certainly would not. I would happily block the entire site on my router and not miss it one bit.
9. If all conservatives and alternative news content were banned from Youtube, the only thing it would be good for is finding "neutral" content like how-to videos, old commercials, old TV shows, etc. but A) those videos are seldom monetized, since the uploaders don't own the copyrights to commercials and TV shows, and small-time mom & pop content providers can't monetize anymore, ever since the recent "ad-pocalypse" and B) you can download Youtube videos using a free script like "youtube-dl" so youtube wouldn't get any advertising revenue out of it.
10. I posit that many content providers don't need 100% of the revenue they are currently making from their content. Some of them are falling for greed, and the idea that when it comes to money, "the more the merrier". These content providers should eventually (later in the movement) be held accountable for continuing to support Youtube by their presence and patronage, and conservative viewers should at that point cut them loose, writing them off as "compromisers" or "not worth it anymore" as they leave Youtube forever. I'm sure the remaining, greedy holdouts will eventually get the message. Perhaps the "Never Youtube" website mentioned at the beginning of this article could also contain a Wall of Shame list of so-called conservatives who insist on standing by the ultra-Leftist Youtube?
In short, who has the real power? Some website (which could easily be replaced), or the content providers whose knowledge, wisdom, experiences and personalities have generated a fan base and who actually produce new content on a regular basis? Who owns all the content currently on youtube?
But even the content providers are only popular or successful because of OUR eyeballs. So perhaps we need to start that grass-roots movement to say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH of the Silicon Valley leftist tyranny and begin leaving these leftist social media websites en masse.
Do we come to Youtube because we love Youtube, or do we come there for the content produced by hundreds of individual content providers? I think the answer is obvious. Meanwhile, content providers come there for the eyeballs -- but those eyeballs can easily leave for another site if the content is no longer there. I say we find other site(s) and break up the Youtube monopoly.
Perhaps what we need is a small group of large conservative media personalities or organizations to kick off and organize this movement.