Youtube has started to artificially slow down video load times if you use Firefox. Spoofing Chrome magically makes this problem go away.

In a previous generation, governments would go after this blatant anti competitive behaviour.

I'm sure the EU will still.
- It’s just a shame that there’s really only one government organization globally that will still stand up to corporations.
  
  To be fair China will send you to a reeducation camp or disappear you if you try to act like a western billionaire.
  
  China will make you disappear for many things including speaking up against the genocide of religious minorities ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  
  For now
- Honestly with the speed new BS crops up I don’t think they will.
The current US Federal Trade Commission is quite agressive compared to other FTCs historically.
- True. Though they have been stuck with 30 years of damage simply reverse too.
  
  Think of it as 30 years of rent they're now claiming.
- Yes, but they haven't fixed this specific problem that just broke in the last day or so, therefore the FTC is a corrupt useless organization that pours hot wax on kittens
- then why do we have like 4 conglomerates making everything in the grocery store?

Some people are reporting it happens when your accounts get flagged by YouTube for blocking ads and that using a private browsing session can be used to bypass it, so it's possible this isn't a blanket thing?

Either way, they can go fuck themselves.

If you're on Firefox and using uBlock Origin (which you should), you can add the following to your filters list to essentially disable the delay:

! Bypass 5 seconds delay added by YouTube
www.youtube.com##+js(nano-stb, resolve(1), 5000, 0.001)

It doesn't fully disable it, just makes it almost instant, because Google has been doing shit like looking at what gets blocked to combat ad blockers recently.

I use youtube without logging in, and it runs normally. If I use a private window, that's when I get a delay when loading videos.
deleted
Thanks I'll get back to this later

Do you want to hear about the Microsoft "bug" that affected Firefox that was only recently fixed after 5+ years of getting reported?

Corporations really hate non-profit products that are superior.

If you're networked with the right people in the US, laws don't matter

Yes. The US DOJ has a website for reporting antitrust concerns

Yes. It is. And consumers can't do a thing about it.

Yes.

Is it more anti competitive than McDonald's only selling McDonald's burgers or preventing you from bringing Taco Bell tacos in from outside?

🙄 No it would be like Ford owning gas stations and pumping faster for Ford vehicles than Chevy.
- Doesn't Tesla do the equivalent of that with charging stations?
  
  Maybe. But Tesla doesn't own over 50% of the charging station market share.
  
  True... I think even if they don't, it's still potentially anti-competitive.
  
  (Gawd, Imagine how life would be with gas station incompatibility with your car. Holy shit that would suck).
- That's less restrictive than what I said. McDonald's won't let you bring tacos in at all, doesn't just make you wait at the door for 2 minutes, etc.
  
  Edit: and to anyone quibbling with my McDonald's example saying you can in fact bring tacos in, that was just an illustration. I can find plenty of examples of one establishment not letting people bring food in from somewhere else.
  
  I don't feel your analogy quite captures what is going on here because both McDonald's and Taco Bell are in the same business. Maybe if you explain it more.
  
  Google owns a major web destination, YouTube, essentially a line of business in its own right, in addition to Chrome, also its own distinct product. Firefox competes with Chrome but Google is allegedly using market dominance with YouTube to make it harder for Firefox to compete.
  
  If a company owns two products A and B and if A is used to access B, company cannot hinder competitors to A via fuckery in B.
  
  This is the kind of thing that MS got in trouble for -- using Windows to tip the scales in favor of Internet Explorer by tightly integrating it into the OS.
  
  McDonald's prohibiting people from using their restaurant, which is not itself a separate product with a separate market. Nobody is clamoring to go to McDonald's restaurant spaces to sit and eat. It's just part of the restaurant offering. So there is no leverage like there is with YouTube being used against a competitor for a totally different product. And besides, Taco Bell can do the same as McDonald's. They're on equal footing.
  
  If in your analogy there were some other product that McDonald's owned that could penalize you for going to Taco Bell your analogy would work.
  
  Google -- Ford
  
  Mozilla -- Chevy
  
  Firefox -- Chevy car
  
  Chrome -- Ford Car
  
  YouTube -- Ford gas station
  
  Thanks for your question.
  
  I see food preparation and dining rooms as separate industries, even if they don't appear that way at first. The most we can see this in practice is probably mall food courts. Web content like YouTube is the food and the web browser is the place or mechanism by which we consume "food".
  
  Is being allowed to take tacos into McDonald's a hill I'm going to die on? No, of course not, it's just the first illustration I thought of. Lol. I could probably come up with a better example, that one was just easier and more visual.
  
  To be clear, I'm not saying there's no anticompetitiveness happening, I'm saying that all vertical integration is basically this same amount of anticompetitiveness, and vertical integration is often very good, which is why we tolerate it all the time.
  
  I agree the comparison to MS and Internet Explorer is somewhat similar. I also think that case was not decided particularly well, and it's not as revealing as it could have been since it ended up settling out of court, and IE ended up getting crushed by Chrome just a few years later.
  
  I wonder, if Google made a new app called YouTube that could only watch YouTube and made it the only app that could watch YouTube, sort of like Quibi, would that be more competitive or less competitive? No one is asserting that Quibi was anticompetitive at all, correct? That would be even worse for Firefox users, they'd completely lose access to YouTube unless they downloaded a 2nd app, this time YouTube instead of Chrome, but like Quibi it would seem to dodge all these competition concerns completely. I think that shows how these concerns can be selective and kind of nonsensical.
Yes. Yes, it is!

McDonald's doesn't actually give a shit if you bring in food from other places.
- McDonald's probably does care, but their minimum wage employees don't.
- How?
  
  Pick a different example then. In my experience movie theaters don't let you bring food in from outside. McDonald's still won't sell a Burger King burger regardless of whether you could bring one in.
Is it more anti competitive than McDonald's only selling McDonald's burgers

Yeah, it's more like the next time you go to Wendy's, McDonald's will follow you and try to lock the doors before you go in.
- No, not really. Google can't do anything about my taking my Firefox browser and watching videos from somewhere else. There are countless other video streaming services.
  
  There are countless other video streaming services.
  
  There are government websites - including my state's dmv - that exclusively use youtube. You're being disingenuous when you're saying you can just use another streaming service (and I don't believe you don't know it).
  
  The efficient solution to that problem is governments using a different platform that's actually neutral. The government has full control over where they host their videos. Using that as a reason to TRY (a likely long and drawn out process) to force Google to change its policies company-wide is silly.
  
  I'm not being disingenuous. I watch videos on a bunch of platforms. It's easy.
  
  The efficient solution to that problem is governments using a different platform that's actually neutral.
  
  First time I've heard public services called efficient, but ok.
  
  I'm not being disingenuous. I watch videos on a bunch of platforms. It's easy.
  
  We're not talking about you here. You're purposely ignoring the problem, and therefore being disingenuous.
  
  Public services aren't efficient, but they can surely change themselves more efficiently than they can force a multi billion dollar company to change its ways.
  
  I'm surprised you're not more worried about the government outsourcing its functions to a company you seem very suspicious of.
  
  If the government decided to have vital public meetings only in a private venue you have to be a member of or something, the proper fix is not to force the club to accept everyone, it's to have the government stop having vital meetings in private places.
  
  I also don't see a problem because everything of value these video streaming services offer is replaceable by one of the many other streaming services. The fact that YouTube is the biggest or most recognized does not change anything for me. The fact that there is some content that is only on YouTube doesn't, either. That's a normal thing that happens in an economy. Ford dealers only sell Ford cars, Coca Cola doesn't sell Pepsi, etc.
  
  Public services aren't efficient, but they can surely change themselves more efficiently than they can force a multi billion dollar company to change its ways.
  
  [citation needed]
  
  I'm surprised you're not more worried about the government outsourcing its functions to a company you seem very suspicious of.
  
  You're the one talking about all the alternate video services you use. I just dont want a monopoly.
  
  If the government decided to have vital public meetings only in a private venue you have to be a member of or something, the proper fix is not to force the club to accept everyone, it's to have the government stop having vital meetings in private places.
  
  wut. Not having meetings in private places literally is making sure the 'place' accepts everyone. Do you even read what you're saying?
  
  I also don't see a problem because everything of value these video streaming services offer is replaceable by one of the many other streaming services. The fact that YouTube is the biggest or most recognized does not change anything for me. The fact that there is some content that is only on YouTube doesn't, either.
  
  Well, you totally missed the point then.
  
  I just dont want a monopoly.
  
  There is no monopoly in video streaming. Not even close.
  
  wut. Not having meetings in private places literally is making sure the 'place' accepts everyone. Do you even read what you're saying?
  
  You're misreading what I wrote. If government unfairly has vital meetings at Private Club which not everyone has access to, the solution is not to force Private Club to accept everyone, it's to not have meetings at Private Club and have them at City Hall or something instead, somewhere that isn't exclusive.
  
  There is no monopoly in video streaming. Not even close.
  
  Ah, you're one of those people. Okay.
  
  Yes except everyone knows YouTube has a massive, massive market advantage in that space. And the channel you want to watch isn't on the others. And you know this too.