139
WTF is this shit? This is required to watch a "restricted" video on YouTube now (hexbear.net)
submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by TankieTanuki@hexbear.net to c/chapotraphouse@hexbear.net
50 comments fedilink hide all child comments

"Please doxx yourself to continue"

For the longest time it would force me to log in to watch "restricted" videos, but now that's not enough.

It gave me a fourth option of "verify by email address" but that didn't work.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] came_apart_at_Kmart@hexbear.net 70 points 3 months ago

the industry term for this ive heard tossed around is "checkpointing", as in, your account has been checkpointed.

i decided when my first social account was checkpointed, i would turn around and stop using the service.

and that is the story of how i got off all meta products, left twitter, left microsoft, and am a few steps away from de-googling all but one official account i will keep isolated for very specific tasks. i might even get rid of it, eventually.

checkpoints are gates to enter walled gardens. the walls will only ever get higher and more hostile to crossing until it becomes obvious to all users they are prisons.

viewed in this way, they are training you by helping you learn where you don't really want to end up. and this will be the easiest moment to transition elsewhere. the stakes will only increase.

[-] SorosFootSoldier@hexbear.net 63 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Won't someone think of the children!?

Meanwhile the children are being gunned down in schools, eh whatever shit's boring who cares?

[-] SexUnderSocialism@hexbear.net 53 points 3 months ago

There's literal pedophiles in charge of the empire, but we must protect the children from learning about a genocide.

[-] SorosFootSoldier@hexbear.net 18 points 3 months ago

Institutional pedophilea ala Trump and Epstein is fine, it's problematic when the poors do it instead. (I feel dirty for even writing this lmao)

[-] peeonyou@hexbear.net 2 points 3 months ago

same with everything else.. stealing, murder,removed.. all of it is only bad when done by the poors

[-] moss_icon@hexbear.net 39 points 3 months ago

This has been the norm in Europe for a few years now. I refuse to give Youtube my ID or bank card lol

[-] Snort_Owl@hexbear.net 36 points 3 months ago

Im gonna email you pics of my boobies

[-] doublepepperoni@hexbear.net 53 points 3 months ago

verify this, google

[-] AmarkuntheGatherer@lemmygrad.ml 36 points 3 months ago

Get the slop churner to make an ID, perhaps? Never tried it, worth a shot.

[-] SexUnderSocialism@hexbear.net 39 points 3 months ago

Using the slop churner to generate a selfie of an old sweaty man to verify your age.

[-] LaGG_3@hexbear.net 18 points 3 months ago

But what if it ends up looking too much like the actual me? tequila-sunset

[-] hello_hello@hexbear.net 35 points 3 months ago

This is probably why they were cracking down on invidious and other YouTube frontends. They want to make sure everyone submits themselves to the pantopticon.

[-] Kopfrkingl@hexbear.net 31 points 3 months ago

I use Newpipe and launch a VPN whenever they block my IP address

[-] Cysioland@lemmygrad.ml 31 points 3 months ago

Send them this

[-] itsraining@lemmygrad.ml 11 points 3 months ago

Nah this one has already expired

[-] Cysioland@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 3 months ago

I feel you could fix the date and it would still accept it

Some people posted on Polish websites that this got them through YouTube age verification years ago

[-] cosecantphi@hexbear.net 25 points 3 months ago

take a selfie

How do they stop you from uploading a photo of a random person?

[-] WeedReference420@hexbear.net 33 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I believe when this sort of thing was first rolled out in the UK people were successfully using pictures of Norman Reedus in Death Stranding, not sure if it still works or not.

[-] Arahnya@hexbear.net 12 points 3 months ago

i tried using a random picture and it worked at first, but couldnt get past the second phase.

[-] SootySootySoot@hexbear.net 2 points 3 months ago

Nowadays it requires a video of doing certain random actions. Not impossible to fake but much harder.

[-] doublepepperoni@hexbear.net 18 points 3 months ago

Or an AI generated one

[-] PorkrollPosadist@hexbear.net 20 points 3 months ago

This is the basis for blacklisting people from regime social media.

[-] abc@hexbear.net 19 points 3 months ago

use a photo of Sam Porter Bridges hope this helps

[-] Evilphd666@hexbear.net 18 points 3 months ago

twisted We now know tankis email.

But send them this pic ppb-gigachad

[-] mendiCAN@hexbear.net 5 points 3 months ago

is that.... chad+ppb? I've never seen this version!

[-] Meltyheartlove@hexbear.net 16 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I try to look for the video on archive.org when it is age restricted and it works sometimes

[-] doublepepperoni@hexbear.net 13 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I'm from Europe and Google started doing something like this a few years back for a short while. I think one of the options was text message verification which is what I used on a couple of my Google accounts. Then it went away and I never saw it pop up again

[-] Grebgreb@hexbear.net 12 points 3 months ago

youtube is the poop

[-] redsteel@lemmygrad.ml 12 points 3 months ago

My account got this too, fucking infuriating. The email method didn't work for me either. I was one click away from rage deleting my entire google account without setting up and transferring control elsewhere, so fed up with literally everything year after year.

Anyway, I discovered the "take a selfie" method was run by an incompetent or lazy third party service which I fooled with a random, AI-generated face pic found on image search. It would only accept input from a camera, so I logged in on my phone's browser, then kept that face pic I found fullscreened on my desktop monitor while angling the phone's front camera to make a detectable match (a ring around the selfie area would turn green). Was awkward and took a few tries but it worked and restored full account access without further harassment.

[-] TankieTanuki@hexbear.net 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

lol nice

[-] doubledealer@hexbear.net 10 points 3 months ago

well at least your account isn't so old that they dont have to bother asking

[-] LeninWalksTheEarth@hexbear.net 9 points 3 months ago

thats why it hasnt happened to me? shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit

[-] invalidusernamelol@hexbear.net 5 points 3 months ago

My account is old enough to drink. I may also pay for the plus because I don't want to have to deal with ads on my TV which is much harder to block ads on.

I hate that they basically put all the Vanced features in Plus then made it almost impossible to run Vanced.

[-] FreddiesLantern@leminal.space 7 points 3 months ago

YouTube ain’t worth it. Claim your time back.

[-] TankieTanuki@hexbear.net 4 points 3 months ago

I try to avoid it but in this case I was just trying to do the courtesy of watching something that someone asked me to

[-] nothingcorporate@lemmy.today 6 points 3 months ago

https://grayjay.app/

you're welcome

[-] lilypad@hexbear.net 16 points 3 months ago

from a brief perusal of their website, it seems their either funded by or run by fascists or fascist sympathizers: https://drewdevault.com/2025/10/22/2025-10-22-Whats-up-with-FUTO.html

[-] nothingcorporate@lemmy.today 14 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

What in tarnation?! That is such a bummer. I have been a fan of Louis Rossman for years, and that he lent his credibility to FUTO made me think they must be cool, that and their claims of donating to good FOSS projects...and around FOSS and self-hosting circles, projects like Grayjay and Immich are frequently touted as the best alternatives for people who care about their privacy...

  1. I imagine I'll keep using Grayjay as it is free, and ad-free, and the source code is publicly available so I know they're not hiding any data mining or the like, and they won't be profiting off me
  2. I'm off to head down a rabbit hole to validate the claims in this post...wish me luck everyone!

EDIT: Back from the Rabbit Hole. Yeah, it looks like FUTO is run by a fascist-sympathizing arsehole. There ARE some cool things about them. Their main business model seems to be freeware that you can pay for if you want to support but paying doesn't get you extra features and free doesn't get you ads, or anything else bad.

Most of their software is source code available, so users can see what's under the hood, but it's not GPL (or similar), you can't fork, and you can't do with what you please. That's not my favorite, but the real kicker is them trying to redefine what open source means to shoehorn that model into being called "open source," it's not.

The big exception being Immich, which they did not develop, but recently bought. I'm torn here: Immich was primarily made by volunteers and FUTO is giving the team full time salaries and making it so they don't have to work other jobs. Immich has (at least for now) remained fully open source (AGPL 3.0). But, donations to the project now go to FUTO, and I'm sure other people like me will assume good things about FUTO when they see they make Immich, which is, I think, stolen valor (or I guess, bought valor).

I found another thread about it, and think this comment from u/cecilkorik@lemmy.ca is right:

I think Louis Rossmann’s heart is in the right place, his work for right for repair is genuine, his disdain for New York’s intolerable bureaucracy is completely understandable and justified, but it is leading him in bad directions and has been ever since he linked up with FUTO. Never trust a billionaire and never let them delude you into thinking they care about you or anyone. He is being used for his reputation and his audience and when they are done consuming those things for the billionaire’s cause’s benefit he will be left with neither one and the billionaire will move on without slowing down or shedding a tear.

In the end, I think migrating of FUTO apps is a good idea, but since they are free and ad-free, if you use them, you can at least take solace knowing you're not making them any money, just don't get suckered in and donate to their for-profit, seemingly shady company.

[-] Snort_Owl@hexbear.net 8 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

My read on Louis Rossman is he is a libertarian and pretty awful on the politics side of things and very pro capitalist. He just happens to be right on right to repair and has cute cats but I wouldnt trust him that much

[-] cbd@hexbear.net 4 points 3 months ago

Rossman is a kiwi farms user unfortunately

[-] TankieTanuki@hexbear.net 8 points 3 months ago

Someone else recommended FreeTube to me, so I'm going to try their desktop client.

[-] peeonyou@hexbear.net 1 points 3 months ago

i was just thinking yesterday i don't know if there's an app out there like Plex but for your music so you can stream from your media server or desktop to your phone + Android Auto/CarPlay or whatever

this seems like it would be close but i don't see any mention of Android Auto

[-] ArsonButCute@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 3 months ago

I know folks have issues with Futo but their app Grayjay is a supposedly privacy respecting frontend that bypasses all this nonsense.

[-] KhantoBlackhand@lemmy.today 3 points 3 months ago

If you're on android I recommend using LibreTube. I prevents all of this and allows you to avoid ads. It also has a modern design, but it's strictly YouTube only.

this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2026
139 points (100.0% liked)

Chapotraphouse

14340 readers
465 users here now

Banned? DM Wmill to appeal.

No anti-nautilism posts. See: Eco-fascism Primer

Slop posts go in c/slop. Don't post low-hanging fruit here.

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
LENINSGHOSTFACEKILLA@hexbear.net
corgiwithalaptop@hexbear.net
a_little_red_rat@hexbear.net
thelastaxolotl@hexbear.net
CoolerOpposide@hexbear.net
Thordros@hexbear.net
JustSo@hexbear.net