[TylerRiddle]

This is a personal project of mine that was borne out of frustration and disgust at the behavior of YouTube over the past several years.

The censorship on YouTube (and many other websites) is hitting a level of absurdity that is hard to believe. I can't imagine the general public is actually interested in having YouTube gatekeep so much information and act as if they are the arbiters of truth.

YouTube content creators are starting to hedge their bets by publishing in tandem to alternate platforms but they aren't always informing their audiences about it. There seems to be a good chunk of the population that is also tired of YouTube's behavior but isn't ready to totally boycott the service.

I created TubeShift to do 3 specific things:

1) Help publishers drive traffic away from YouTube to their official alternate publishing locations such as Rumble or Dailymotion.

2) Help people who want to watch less YouTube find the official content of the publishers they pay attention to somewhere that is not YouTube.

3) Give users a chance to still see the video they want to see even if it was removed from YouTube, for instance if they followed a hyperlink right to a YouTube video watch page.

You'll find some test links on the website to an EEVBlog and History Guy video both of which are hedging their bets.

Here's a test URL for a video that's been removed. Louis Rossman, who I can't imagine is controversial for any reason except making established tech unhappy through right to repair reform, just recently published a video about someone who is starting fires in front of his repair shop in New York City. In less than 24 hours after publication the video was removed from YouTube for unknown reasons.

Not a problem because TubeShift had already managed to get it into it's database.

https://odysee.com/@rossmanngroup:a/someone-keeps-piling-gar...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB_IXenArUw

[gkoberger]

You've provided two examples of censorship.

The first is a video that was removed from YouTube by the uploader, not by YouTube.

The second is Twitter blocking a link to a YouTube video that's still up.

I get you want to be a victim, but YouTube doesn't owe you or anyone else a platform. And even so, in no way is their "censorship" hitting a "level of absurdity that is hard to believe".

[TylerRiddle]

> The first is a video that was removed from YouTube by the uploader,

Only a part of this can be confirmed. Rossman hasn't made a statement yet about why that video was removed but for instance he still links to it from other places. If a video is flagged by YouTube for what ever reason one of the available options is for the publisher to voluntarily remove it to avoid something like a channel strike.

Rossman is potentially a victim here but it doesn't mater because the nature of the removal is irrelevant for the system from a technical standpoint.

> The second is Twitter blocking a link to a YouTube video that's still up.

You didn't look in very much detail. The post I could not make had a link to the same video in BitChute. When it's on BitChute it's harmful but when it's on YouTube it's not. It's the same video content with a different URL! I suspect what happened is BitChute is blacklisted from Twitter completely but I haven't tested it yet.

I suppose some how the exact same video is only harmful when it's on BitChute. That makes sense, right? This is the video by the way: https://www.bitchute.com/video/25cQBXfjgpLo/

> YouTube doesn't owe you or anyone else a platform.

Are you sure that argument makes sense when you are discussing a thing that is intended to drive people away from YouTube? Does it sound like I think YouTube owes anyone anything? It sounds more like I'm saying 'Watch Less YouTube' which would, at least in my head, be the opposite of thinking YouTube owed anyone anything.

> And even so, in no way is their "censorship" hitting a "level of absurdity that is hard to believe".

Yeah, it is. https://odysee.com/@MLChristiansen:d/susan-wicky-wicky-brags...

[sneak]

This is great. Thanks for this!

[TylerRiddle]

Some additional info:

I've setup a social media account for TubeShift at Gab which you can find here https://gab.com/tubeshift

I setup a Twitter account too though it's really only out of morbid curiosity. I ran into my first bit of censorship on my third post! I was unable to submit a link to a funny video where YouTube is acting like a thug demanding a content creator censor themselves. The Tweet was rejected as being "potentially harmful content" - I'm not exactly sure what it's harming except the reputation of companies that like to censor. https://twitter.com/TubeShiftPlugin/status/13796110972594053...

Here's the video on BitChute - be careful though Twitter thinks this is harmful. https://www.bitchute.com/video/25cQBXfjgpLo/

[gkoberger]

"I've setup a social media account for TubeShift at Gab"

...oh

[mplewis]

Yep. If the "red, white and blue" TubeShift icon, the "Ditch Big Tech" tagline, and the link to the far-right video hosting platform BitChute weren't loud enough dog whistles, this one is.

[readflaggedcomm]

Bitchute's admins may disagree: https://www.theburkean.ie/articles/2020/12/13/bitchute-remov...

[TylerRiddle]

What exactly is being whistled? Can you please be specific?

[cpach]

Isn’t Gab that site for far-right extremists?

Why not Mastodon instead?

[TylerRiddle]

I have my own account on Gab independent of TubeShift and I find it to be the most fun. Gab is nuts but so am I so it works out well.

I routinely fight with the users that worship Torba and call them a cult as a hobby. I like the conflict.

I routinely harras Torba and tell him to fix his crap software and call him incompetent. Then I fight off his cult backing him up with out thought. I like the conflict.

It's fun.

[gkoberger]

I think you have your answer. Watch the video they posted, too.

[TylerRiddle]

There's plenty of stuff on Barricade Garage's channel that you would consider far right. But perhaps you should consider that his message is actually that the establishment successfully keeps us from cooperating by perpetuating a left vs right narrative. The reason they do this is so we don't unite against them.

I think he has a pretty good point. You could try listening to some of his "far right" views. They are in YouTube and BitChute: "CNN INTERVIEW GONE WRONG" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb0lh3_s4Dk and "HE GOT HIT WITH THAT BIG MAC" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PWiMiO5Buo

I've never seen a member of the "far right" throw gang signs before.

[sneak]

I thought Facebook and Gmail were the sites that far-right extremists use most.