We hear "it's their platform, they can do what they want," a whole lot. The trouble is the platform is almost a monopoly on user created video. You can't launch on other platforms and hope to be as successful as being on YouTube. Their discovery mechanism and massive user base gives them an incredibly unique positions.

YouTube is from an earlier era, yet still after the dotcom bust. It was still on the rebound of the era of everything is free, we'll just make money on ads (like NetZero and Juno).

That model was and still isn't sustainable, and their dominance gives them pretty unique control over media. Same with Facebook.

> The trouble is the platform is almost a monopoly on user created video.

I agree entirely. So the solution is to break up the monopoly. We can start by breaking up google:

https://apps.bostonglobe.com/opinion/graphics/2018/06/break-...

We also need to promote interchangeability and open standards. Not sure how to do this - wonder if legislation is required.

Google made the option to mark a video as unmonetized in the first place, I don't see how it can be an uploader's fault for using an available option?

Now they are taking that option away. They should get to dictate the terms of use of their free service, IMO. It's still a massive dick move. But what can you do?

Nobody has an issue with that, the problem is they're apparently doing that without any announcement or clear communication

> But what can you do?

Spin up a peertube instance, apparently:)

Well, you could write a blog post about it, so that Google gets the bad press it deserves for this dick move...

This analysis is incorrect. Google doesn’t require running ads inside videos at all.