Post #1978402

2026-05-03 19:09 UTC

YouTube has started restricting most of our recent videos. They can still be viewed by turning off &quot;Restricted Mode,&quot; but this is only possible to do if you have control of your computer. I.e. people accessing our content from the library, schools, and other public institutions may no longer have the ability to do so. 🫤 Restricted videos include last week&#39;s conversation with Jarrod Shanahan and Eman Abdelhadi, a recent panel discussion on disability representation in YA, conversations on supermax prisons, science history, attacks on trans people, New Orleans, Rojava, and more. Why now? An event in April with Tomas Rothaus and @crimethinc attracted significant far Right attention, and these restrictions are likely the result of a concerted, bad-faith effort to remove our content. Many of the impacted videos feature authors published by @pmpress and AK Press. Our bookstore will challenge these restrictions, but it&#39;s felt for a while that the writing is on the wall for liberatory projects on corporate platforms. We&#39;ve already moved to reduce our dependence on Google and Meta elsewhere. No doubt this will nudge us further towards independent spaces. (- L)

Replies (8)

@firestorm@kolektiva.social 2026-05-03 19:10

Folks elsewhere have suggested PeerTube, and we will definitely consider that option!

Open ##1981190
@LukefromDC@kolektiva.social 2026-05-03 19:35

@firestorm @crimethinc @pmpress Good for you responding by speeding up the migration off of corporate platforms! A tech question: can these be viewed as things stand now by people who have their own computer but have chosen not to have a Google Account? Invidious hasn't to my knowledge been able to crack Youtube's fortress around age restricted videos. I would actually advise not only reposting elsewhere but removing from YT videos that get age restricted, so as not to be the reason anyone uploads an ID to Google.

Open ##1981196
@ajroach42@retro.social 2026-05-03 19:48

@firestorm @crimethinc @pmpress we've got space for you on https://communitymedia.video if you'd like a backup.

Open ##1981200
@heckhound@packmates.org 2026-05-03 22:33

@pmpress @crimethinc @firestorm thats really messed up, hopefully peertube treats yall better!!

Open ##1981201
@dianea@lgbtqia.space 2026-05-03 23:23

@firestorm @crimethinc @pmpress This is why I left Meta. Existing as myself became brutal.

Open ##1981202
@MizFidd@beige.party 2026-05-04 00:39

@firestorm Oh, that is frustrating! I will ensure your videos are unrestricted at my schools. Hoping others in education are able to do the same. @crimethinc @pmpress #teaching

Open ##1981203
@offline_and_free@todon.nl 2026-05-04 02:41

@firestorm : Exactly! We had better independent media 25 years ago during the anti globalization movement and then we started using corporate platforms and got complacent. We need our own media infrastructure from the ground up.

Open ##1981204
@stepheneb@ruby.social 2026-05-06 02:42

@firestorm @crimethinc @pmpress I haven’t set this up yet but I think it’s possible have your peertube videos automatically mirrored to an associated YouTube account. You might well still have issues on YouTube but maybe it would be a path where folks could find your peertube videos.

Open ##2062007