this post was submitted on 01 Nov 2023
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YouTube's ‘War’ on Adblockers Shows How Google Controls the Internet (www.404media.co)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/technology
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Another great article from 404 Media highlighting the power that the tech giants have amassed over how how we use the internet.

This brings me, I think, to the elephant in the room, which is the fact that Google has its hands on quite literally every aspect of this entire saga as a vertically integrated adtech giant.

This extreme power over the adtech and online advertising ecosystem is one of the subjects of an FTC antitrust suit against Google.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

As I said: I'm not saying that one has a moral obligation to watch the 1000000th stupid raid shadow legends ad. Google would try and exploit us for all we're worth, so IDGAF about their revenue. It's just that all those posts along the lines of "Google tries to earn money by me using their service,! The audacity!" Rub me the wrong way. There are plenty of examples here where people try to spin their use of adblockers into some white knight story and claim moral high ground for doing so. That is hypocrisy in my eyes and this hypocrisy is annoying me. Nothing wrong with "yeah Google, I'm going to take your shit just like you help yourself to mine on a regular basis, because fuck you". Just... Let's not try to make this some moral thing, alright?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

So basically you feel icky? You have a moral problem with people who have moral problems?

Cry me a fucking river. The problem isn't that Google is some nefarious Snidely Whiplash character, cackling madly as they tie some helpless waif to some train tracks... theyre "just" a business, doing business things. The problem is, at their scale, it removes opportunity and mobility of any kind of competition. Any time they squeeze their rock, it has massive implications not just in the technical landscape, but also in peoples ability to control their own life, as it pertains to the ever-growing digital landscape.

I'm sorry that all you can see is people who want free stuff... but that seems to be your own insecurities eating at you. And reflects your own motivations. Not anyone elses.