So 5 years ago there was a thread about false copyright claims on YouTube: https://www.cemetech.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9851

The issue in the thread was original content from small creators being claimed by random businesses, which could then take ad revenue, even though the content wasn't actually owned by them. I noticed that most of the replies in that thread said that false claims on their content were quickly resolved by YouTube.

The situation currently on YouTube has been quite different recently, because false claims are being accepted and not challenged by YouTube. False claims are rampant, and the issue has gotten a lot of attention in the past weeks with a channel called TheFatRat getting a video with 40 million + views copystriked (his response to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4AeoAWGJBw&feature=youtu.be&t=482). His initial dispute was revoked, and YouTube only reviewed it again because of the community outrage. A small channel would have had no chance at getting a claim reversed. The major problem with YouTube's system is that when a claim is disputed, the business making the claim decides whether it is accurate or not. So, the businesses always side with themselves. A third party needs to make the review.

The power of corporations on YouTube with copystriking and ability to play to the algorithm has many people concerned that the site is straying from its original goal of allowing anyone to become famous and connect with others like them on YouTube. Instead of individual creators, the site is becoming overrun with companies and celebrities. The embodiment of this fight between individual and business has been the fight between PewDiePie and T-Series (https://www.standard.co.uk/stayingin/pewdiepie-vs-tseries-the-story-behind-the-youtube-battle-a4008046.html).

The community reaction to YouTube Rewind 2018 shows the users' distaste with the current state of the platform. "Rewind" is a video that YouTube makes every year to showcase the events and creators of the year. It became the most disliked video on YouTube in a week (at the time of writing, 14 million dislikes https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/13/18137894/youtube-rewind-2018-dislike-shane-dawson-logan-paul-pewdiepie-mkbhd-philip-defranco). The video has been criticized for not including the biggest YouTubers on the platform, whom YouTube omits for not depicting the community that they want advertisers to see.

So that's a summary of recent events on YouTube. What do you think about the state of YouTube in 2018?

I'll just reiterate my observations from the previous thread:
For further elaboration, you may wish to refer to the slides for a short talk I gave along these lines.

Basically, youtube do the commercially expedient thing and users who are subject to false claims of ownership do have recourse in the form of issuing a formal challenge to claim rejections (effectively saying "I have a right to publish this; if you disagree I'll see you in court" to the claimant). While it looks to me like the systems in place at youtube go far beyond the requirements of the law, I don't doubt that they were built like that for a reason- probably because it's easier for the business to accept increased "collateral damage" than fight lawsuits like Viacom v. Youtube (even if they're likely to win).

But hey, being publicly angry might help push site policies to a more favorable balance for users if it meaningfully affects the calculus of money-making.

Why dilute the serious argument you seem to be presenting with this? This "fight" is just a meme-y popularity contest. Of course the channel for a huge media corporation would get lots of attention. There's no "companies are evil" stuff going on here. And is PewDiePie also "overrunning" YouTube himself? He's a celebrity.

Although I do enjoy the meme-y side of the fight and am a PewDiePie fan, I tried to talk about actual problems on YouTube and not focus on that (which is why I limited my mention of that to 1 sentence). It has been the dominating event on YouTube for the past month, so to ignore it would be to ignore my topic of the "State of YouTube".

PewDiePie is a celebrity different from the others now coming to the platform. He's no Will Smith. PewDiePie was a celebrity made by the platform, a platform where, as I stated before, any random user can become famous. He is the embodiment of what content creators on YouTube want to do: become famous by sharing their original content on the platform.

The T-Series fight is important. I disagree with you when you say that there is no evil corporations at work here. Obviously the false copystrikes show that evil companies are exploiting the platform. Separately from the copystrikes, T-Series is just a company using the platform to their benefit as would be expected, so they are not necessarily evil, but many people feel as though YouTube was not created so that big companies could overrun it. Because it wasn't. It's not a matter of right or wrong but of the platform becoming more corporate, which many, including myself, think is bad.

PewDiePie is getting old lets give some uprising to so other channels (T-Series).

Boiler Room run Youtube now

What nationality are you exactly?