Greetings youtube users. I, like many of you, are plumb tired of youtube's crap, and this whole anti-ad-blocking business is the final straw. As a Canadian, i have been particularly angered by Google's abuses of power, especially when they used banners on their site to artificially cultivate opposition to the implementation of basic regulations which are already in force on telecom companies of a similar market share. I've seen many people expressing desperation at the new restrictions, seeing no possible way of resisting youtube's crackdown, as these new measures seem to have put the adblockers on the backfoot. Many parallels were drawn between the reddit API situation and the youtube adblocker situation, which is an apt, if grim, comparison to draw. I was one of these people, until the solution dawned on me. We need to express our disapproval both on the internet, under google's thumb, and in the main domain which is out of their control: meatspace.
I'm talking about picketing their offices, protesting outside their facilities, and, possibly, even encouraging walkouts among their staff. History has shown that a combination of these two tactics, both cyberspace and meatspace protests, generate enough uproar to deliver results. Anonymous' campaign against scientology and the actions against SOPA and PIPA are a testament to this. While this may seem extreme, fighting for open access to information is something i've believed in for a long time, ever since Aaron Swartz took on JSTOR. Youtube isn't just a broadcasting system; it is an archive, an informational resource and a citizen's band communication medium all in one. Their current actions are analogous to a corporation buying up all of the CB radio frequencies and requiring a licensing fee to broadcast. For the sake of Poe's law, i want to further implore that i am completely serious about this, and will be proceeding with this if there are others who are also willing to show up. Anyways, if anyone is willing to participate in this, I will move forward with the requisite steps to picket Google offices in Ontario, Canada, including applying for permits and organizing web groups.
If you also want to picket your local office if you are in Canada or the US, please direct message me and i can try and help you organize. I will not be posting the addresses of any google offices on here, as i am fairly certain that this is against Reddit's TOS. Please feel free to share, crosspost and repost this call to action. Let's stand up for our right to be ad-free!
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