YouTube & Facebook could lose it all - first warning shot comes as #1 YouTuber moves to 'blockchain powered' platform...

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No one has created higher demand for YouTube and Facebook alternatives, than YouTube and Facebook.

To understand the mess these companies find themselves in today, you need to understand some of the choices they've made along the way.

One of the strangest was their need for approval from dying old media.  But the dying old media is out for blood as TV, radio, and print, now get less viewers, listeners, and readers than YouTubers, Podcasters, and bloggers.

Now the #1 YouTuber is testing the waters outside of the tech giant's waters - and the timing matters.

I'm personally not a PewDiePie fan, only because there's always something i'd rather watch more, I guess it's just not my taste. He makes silly videos, but still, has reason to fear he could get booted off of YouTube any day.  As explained by Forbes:

"PewDiePie's partnership with DLive comes after a petition to ban PewDiePie from YouTube, accusing his channel of being "one of the largest platforms for white supremacist content"

He doesn't. I'm Hispanic, if he did I would say so. He's said some dumb stuff, but not knowing where to draw the line is not what they accuse him of. What the old media is really outraged about is his popularity - specifically, compared to theirs.

I should know, i'm from that world. After majoring in Mass Communications, I was an on-air host and producer at a #1 rated radio station in one of the top 5 US markets for several years.

Thankfully, I got out in time, before the layoffs and pay-cuts began. Always being obsessed with tech and living in Silicon Valley, I was the first among my friends to stop using my car radio completely, and get in the habit of immediately plugging in my iPod upon entering the vehicle.  I knew 'mass adoption' of this was coming soon.

It wouldn't be long until the iPhone came out, and everyone I knew (who was in their early 20's like me) was done with radio.

TV and print went through similar transformations, bringing us to where things stand today. 

I'm not saying traditional broadcast media is dead or even going to die, but to survive they lowered budgets, let some people go, and telling people they'll be getting paid less because they're losing audience to Podcasters and YouTubers has left that industry with a lot of bruised egos, and resentment for online personalities.

THE ANGRY OLD MEDIA:

Members of the traditional media aren't delusional enough to believe they will get people to tune into FM radio instead of Spotify again, they know they won't get people to cancel their Netflix account and start watching shows when they're actually airing.

I believe purely out spite, they're using the last bits of influence they have to trash as much of the new media as possible.

Think of how many times you've heard something on Netflix is "controversial" or "offensive" but you watch it and cannot fathom what that journalist was thinking.

Independent digital media figures like PewDiePie and Joe Rogan faced the same as old media went straight for the throat, labeling them "white supremacists".  The attack itself shows just how out of touch they are, in their world if someone gets that label put on them, it's over.

All it did was result in the media losing more of the little trust they had left.

But here's where things get strange - the tech companies themselves still seem hungry for approval from the old media that secretly hates them.

HOW THE DIGITAL PLATFORMS ARE BLOWING IT:

Companies like Google, Facebook, and Apple have benefited the most from these changes in people's viewing habits, yet that hunger for approval often surfaced by allowing the old media to dictate how they will operate.

Disclaimer - I'm no fan of Alex Jones. I don't hate him either, to be honest I don't know much about the guy. If it helps - ignore that he's the example being used here.

He was kicked off in 2018 for a rule he broke in 2013.

Put aside whatever feelings you have about the guy and let that sink in. The old media got together with the plan to get him take offline, and decided old video clips about the Sandy Hook school shooting were the best material they had against him.

Today they talk about him 'being kicked off for his comments about Sandy Hook' like there isn't a 6 year gap there. It's odd.

Because once you focus on that 6 year gap between what he said, and being kicked off for it - what happened is immediately obvious.

Does anyone believe that news networks getting less viewers than Jones, had a genuine sudden concern over 2013 statements he made? I promise you, that wasn't it.

Now include in other scandals like Elsagate, and the newest one showing pedophiles having a total open community on YouTube.  YouTube knew about, and ignored these issues when it was only YouTubers bringing it up.

But as soon as the mainstream media turned them into 'official' news stories, we saw YouTube spring into action.

Once again, the old mainstream media flexed their power over today's digital platforms, showing their power spans from getting YouTube to act when they never should have, or getting YouTube to finally act when they should have long before.

A PATH TOWARDS SELF-DESTRUCTION:

CNN's prime-time often won't break 1 million viewers.

YouTube's top 100 channels all have 19 million subscribers or more, topping it is PewDiePie with 94 million. 

Yet the CNN could probably get PewDiePie kicked off if they really decided to, they don't even have to wait for him to screw up - just dig something up.

So imagine being in the shoes of a popular digital creator and relying on these platforms, you've had the old media write articles misquoting you, or taking your jokes seriously to label you racist or sexist - you must have some concern that one day it, one of these articles could end with your content being deleted.

So far, creators are responding with the middle finger.

Joe Rogan, and Logan Paul have now had Alex Jones on as a guest - sending a message to YouTube that old TV and print media may decide who YouTube should allow to have a channel, but they decide who will be allowed on theirs.

DECENTRALIZED PLATFORMS SPELL DISASTER:
It's just begun, and it couldn't be off to a worse start for the tech giants.

YouTube's #1 channel announced they'll be live streaming on a new, decentralized platform that raised $20 million promoting themselves as "YouTube on the blockchain".

An article in Forbes about PewDiePie's big move had grasp on the situation, saying:

"PewDiePie, one of the world's biggest internet stars and long-time holder of the most subscribed YouTube channel, has signed an exclusive deal with blockchain streaming platform DLive, edging PewDiePie closer to bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as his fractious relationship with mainstream services and the media continues."

There's going to be more "YouTube on the blockchain" sites coming, and there's several projects aiming to replace Facebook as well such as Minds.com, and promising to secure personal data, instead of one scandal after another involving it being misused.

Leading platforms have positioned themselves as rulers over their users, creating an 'us VS them' mentality - which you immediately hear when you listen to a YouTuber talk about YouTube.

The last thing a company wants is demand for a site that has the same features, and different owners - that's when their fate is set.  All of Silicon Valley needs to remember that the authority they've been given can be taken away.

Ask yourselves 'Decentralized platforms offer a solution to what problem?' and make sure the answer isn't YOU.

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Author: Ross Davis
E-Mail: Ross@GlobalCryptoPress.com Twitter:@RossFM
San Francisco News Desk

4 comments

whywhynot said...

the fall of YouTube slowly continues

whywhynot said...

the fall of youtube slowly continues

Anonymous said...

Decentralisation may mean accepting all the bad stuff too, if a channel becomes immutable and literally no-one is the gatekeeper, then where do you think the extremist content will end up ?

Anonymous said...

Good, people should be able to filter out the chaff from the wheat themselves without the need of some all knowing , always acting intermediary called YouTube or however you'd like to call it.