• Rolando@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    188
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    5 months ago

    some people still recommend using a VPN and IP address from a country where YouTube ads are prohibited, such as Myanmar, Albania, or Uzbekistan.

    Wait, you can just prohibit YouTube ads at a national level? That’s somehow awesome and terrifying at the same time.

      • deranger@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        56
        ·
        5 months ago

        Yeah, I don’t see what’s terrifying. Countries can make laws, if YouTube wants to operate in that market it has to follow the laws there.

        • Dark ArcA
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          12
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          5 months ago

          There seems to be an abundance of the false notion that large corporations are somehow above governments on Lemmy … and that’s simply not true, at least for corporations that want have legitimate business within the country.

          EDIT: So as to say … perhaps the commenter (at least in the moment) was a bit awestruck seeing laws apply to tech (which often seems to feel as though it’s above the law in some way).

          • Halosheep@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            8
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            5 months ago

            Myanmar, as a country, has a GDP of 62.26 billion usd.

            Google has a market cap of 2.17 Trillion usd and made a profit of $305 billion usd last year.

            Google makes more money in profit than moves through Myanmar in a year by nearly 5 times. If Google chooses not to operate in their country because of some law they don’t like, what’s to stop them?

            Google definitely has national government level influence, especially considering the pervasiveness of their product suite. Implying that they’re above the law might be too far, but they for sure influence it.

            If the most extreme happens and Google decided that some EU law was too much to deal with compared to the gains, a lot of Europeans could find themselves in a position where Google doesn’t operate in their country. Imagine every Android device becoming unable to use the majority of the service they operate on, or the most common browser, search engine, email service, and video streaming services simultaneously being disabled. I can’t imagine the people will be very happy about that.

          • edric@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            5 months ago

            It kinda depends where. GDPR in the EU is certainly an example of governments imposing their will on corporations. In the US, not so much, as corporations dump tons of money on lobbying that allow to them influence how they are regulated.

          • helenslunch@feddit.nl
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            9
            ·
            5 months ago

            Trust me, I hate them also. But they also fund a lot of great things. And there are ways to have ads that are not invasive or omnipresent.

    • NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      37
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      5 months ago

      That’s somehow awesome and terrifying at the same time.

      The people of this country would find it just the normal thing.

    • Confused_Emus@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      edit-2
      5 months ago

      Are these countries even safe to host a VPN server in?

      Edit: Just checked my VPN (Proton) and it has options to connect to Myanmar and Albania. Nifty.