On 12/6/2012, Google rolled out an "update" for Youtube. It changed many key parts of this video sharing website. Among these changes are changes to upload policy, making non-"Youtube Partner" members unable to upload videos over approximately 25 minutes. This hurts the freedom of speech of the members. If someone wishes to upload a video fully outlining their beliefs, or an argument for their beliefs, political or otherwise, they must keep it within this length unless they are a "Youtube Partner", an exclusive group whose entry requirements have not been made clear by Google, other than that you must monetize your channel. This may go against the beliefs of the uploader; they may not believe that they should be payed for expressing their views.

Google also did something that destabilized their system, making many users unable to see and/or hear a video, as well as made several essential parts of the Youtube system inaccesible to many people through errors, limiting the exchange of ideas that is an essential part of Youtube.

We also find the new interface insulting: Instead of showing the user's subscriptions, it shows a page labeled "What to watch". To access the page showing those you subscribe to and wish to support, you must find and click a hard-to-see button. This effectively tells us to watch whatever video Youtube serves up, instead of deciding for ourselves what we wish to see.



To sum up, we respectfully request that Google return Youtube to the older but more stable and fair system, and that Google clearly state the requirements for "Youtube Partnership", and the limitations of free and normal membership. We also request that Google stop telling us what we should see, and let us decide for ourselves.