quantumboogaloo

[quantumboogaloo]

A lot of people have asked how to watch The Amazing Digital Circus without YouTube

So many that I added it to the FAQ! :)

[quantumboogaloo]

FYI, it seems dailymotion is also going to using a similar ai age-estimation thing, unfortunately :(

Bookmarked the downloader, though

Hi, autistic person here.  I've been participating in the boycott since the 13th, I had only found out about everything a day before, so I wasn't fully prepared to go full cold turkey.  And now my mental health has gone severely downhill, enough to make my mom threaten to call my doctor since I have a 2+ decade history of thinking about doing something irreversible.

I know how important this is, censorship is god awful and I understand why people are doing it, but I'm unfortunately unable to participate in the youtube boycott itself any longer.  I've had and seen people say to me and others,

"No!  You NEED to keep doing it!"

"You just need to stay strong!  Youll feel better about it all when we win!  And even if we dont win, youll feel good knowing that you tried!"

"Oh, it's just withdrawl symptoms! Keep going! uwu"

But I don't believe I'm going through withdrawal.  People don't say that a homeless person is going through withdrawal because they don't have a home.  Youtube is the only place I have, I'm rarely ever on tumblr, only recently have I upped my activity here because of what's going on.

I understand boycotts take time, especially something as unorganized as this, but with how fragile my mental health, I'm unfortunately not able to participate for much longer.  I know people are saying to use alternatives, but I don't have a computer, and I'm not good enough with technology to understand how to do advanced things on my phone, nor do I trust a lot of other sources.  Plus I don't have ever leave my house because Idon't have a social life and have nothing to catch up on due to me having a lot of free time since I only work weekends. All I can do is try to limit how much I watch on youtube because I can't do things to try and help out in other ways if I'm not here.

I tried my best, I'm sorry. I'll try to help out in other ways.

I totally understand.

Use front-ends or downloads if at all possible. Spread the word about these stupid policies and the boycott. Minimize how much youtube you watch.

Do the best you can, it’s okay if that’s not as much as some others can do. <2

[quantumboogaloo]

YouTube trying real hard to get people to download their app.

And why not throw in an ad for Chrome, just for good measure?

Genuinely I don’t think I’ve ever seen ads for Google or for YouTube, at the very least, not in a long while. And here’s two of them, side-by-side.

[quantumboogaloo]

Even better, paper clips were used as an anti-Nazi symbol in some places during WWII

📎📎📎

Someone suggested we use paper clips as a symbol for anti-censorship and anti-company overreach, and I love it.

I’m only on a quick break from work so I can’t explain the reasoning but 📎📎📎

[quantumboogaloo]

Hi, autistic person here.  I've been participating in the boycott since the 13th, I had only found out about everything a day before, so I wasn't fully prepared to go full cold turkey.  And now my mental health has gone severely downhill, enough to make my mom threaten to call my doctor since I have a 2+ decade history of thinking about doing something irreversible.

I know how important this is, censorship is god awful and I understand why people are doing it, but I'm unfortunately unable to participate in the youtube boycott itself any longer.  I've had and seen people say to me and others,

"No!  You NEED to keep doing it!"

"You just need to stay strong!  Youll feel better about it all when we win!  And even if we dont win, youll feel good knowing that you tried!"

"Oh, it's just withdrawl symptoms! Keep going! uwu"

But I don't believe I'm going through withdrawal.  People don't say that a homeless person is going through withdrawal because they don't have a home.  Youtube is the only place I have, I'm rarely ever on tumblr, only recently have I upped my activity here because of what's going on.

I understand boycotts take time, especially something as unorganized as this, but with how fragile my mental health, I'm unfortunately not able to participate for much longer.  I know people are saying to use alternatives, but I don't have a computer, and I'm not good enough with technology to understand how to do advanced things on my phone, nor do I trust a lot of other sources.  Plus I don't have ever leave my house because Idon't have a social life and have nothing to catch up on due to me having a lot of free time since I only work weekends. All I can do is try to limit how much I watch on youtube because I can't do things to try and help out in other ways if I'm not here.

I tried my best, I'm sorry. I'll try to help out in other ways.

I totally understand.

Use front-ends or downloads if at all possible. Spread the word about these stupid policies and the boycott. Minimize how much youtube you watch.

Do the best you can, it’s okay if that’s not as much as some others can do. <2

[quantumboogaloo]

Quartzlantern’s whole account has lots of posts with lots of sources, highly recommend!

HOW TO EDUCATE YOURSELF AGAINST AI AGE VERIFICATION (KOSA / OSA)

In my previous Boycott Survival Kit posts, I said one of the best ways you can combat AI age verification, is to educate yourself and the people around you. For some, you already started researching or know about this, and that is awesome, but this post is for people who probably don't know where to start. So, I put together some stuff to help you get started.

DISCLAIMER!!!

Most of these PDFs and articles I got from using Duck Duck Go and after only seven days of research. If anyone else has any new information or I got something wrong, please share it!

Also, most of what I found out about Carnegie comes from Ali McForever's article, "How Carnegie's Blood Money Bought British Law: The Online Safety Act Exposed". You can read her investigation in full here:

How Carnegie's Blood Money Bought British Law: The Online Safety Act Exposed: https://alimcforever.substack.com/p/how-carnegies-blood-money-bought

And most of what I found out about Yoti and Illuminate Tech comes from Cyber Waffle's videos, "Who is Behind the Online Safety Act?" and "The Truth About The Online Safety Act! (We were all wrong apparently)"

DISCLAIMER OVER!!!

Now, on to my list!!

1. Get familiar with not only the Bill of Rights, but all 27 Amendments, Civil Rights, Constitution Protections, Criminal Justice Rights, and your Human Rights. Research exactly how KOSA, the Screen Act, COPPA 2.0 and other acts like it infringe on your unalienable rights.

Here is a post with links to them

2. Research the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and who profits from it.

My Sources

3. Research which platforms are using or planning to use AI in the future and also research their parent companies and/or share holders. YouTube, Twitter / X, Spotify, Reddit, and Discord are testing / launching AI age verification technology. Other sites like Dailymotion, TikTok, Threads, Instagram, etc. have announced plans to follow suit.

YouTube is owned by Google / Alphabet Inc.

Twitter / X is owned by xAI (and Elon Musk)

Spotify's biggest shareholders and the ones who hold the most voting power is Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon

Reddit is owned by Advance Publications Inc. Their primary shareholders are the Newhouse family who are New York billionaires

Discord is owned by Discord Inc. and that company is a private one with its money relying on investors, but it has been acquired by Microsoft.

4. Share your (fact-checked) findings with the general public. I said this in my previous posts, but it is very crucial. Keeping this only on Tumblr and Reddit will not garner public support quick enough. The general population needs to be aware of what's happening, and most importantly, why they should side against it. We are literally saying "no" to a policy called the Kids Online Safety Act! That will make people turn their heads in confusion and concern. We need to tell them why it's not about helping to protect children, but to monitor internet users to the detriment of our online safety.

Research and share the many times social media, companies, and organizations have been given concrete evidence of predators and dangerous content in their communities and them refusing to do anything about it. Show the many tools these companies have in place and what these tools are supposed to do. Show that these platforms, companies, and organizations already have the power to protect children AND adults, men AND women AND non-binary, straight AND Lgbtq+, but they simply choose not to. We aren't denying that safety on the internet is an issue that needs addressing, but we need to emphasize how an AI that tracks what we look at online to estimates our ages and demands our private info if it suspects we're underage due to the stuff we look at won't stop dangerous content and dangerous people from hurting children (or adults)!

Social Media, Companies, and Organizations Have the Tools to Protect People... They Just Choose Not To

Research and share how these AI systems are inaccurate and not perfect. A lot of anti-AI focus is on how wonky AI art is or on how ChatGPT gives you funny responses, creepy responses, or just flat out gives you false information. But I strongly encourage you to research the development of AI age verification systems and/or find verified posts of users being falsely flagged. Here's a funny one to help you get started:

'I create fake IDs of your MP so you can get round Online Safety Act' (2025): https://metro.co.uk/2025/08/04/i-create-fake-ids-mp-can-get-round-online-safety-act-23822600/ PLEASE DON'T USE THIS SITE OR ANY SITE TO MAKE A FAKE ID. THAT'S FRAUD AND YOU CAN GO TO JAIL!!! Still funny tho.

Research and share the numerous times YouTube, Twitter / X, Discord, Reddit, Spotify (and other platforms like Tea) have suffered data breaches or reports of account takeovers. Show that even if by some miracle these AI age verification systems are state of the art and 100% accurate, hackers can still get a hold of your information.

Data Breaches and Data Tracking

Who should I tell?

Thank you for making it to the end! This will be my last post for while. But, thank you for all the likes and reblogs!

[quantumboogaloo]

Some art for the YT boycott

I chose these colors because they are the exact inverses of the colors on the google logo. If you want to do the same, here's the color palette with the hex codes for the colors! Feel free to use!

[quantumboogaloo]

There are already reports that YouTube is taking measures to counteract adblockers, downloaders, and front ends, which is what we all knew would happen. Videos on tumblr no longer load and have to be watched directly on YouTube. Instead of just slowing down the site for adblockers, they are stopping the site. Invidious hasn’t been working at all, last I heard. Instead they seem to see the issue as “people want to watch YouTube videos so much, we can take away their options to circumvent us and force them to accept this.”

Not to mention that traffic is still data. They might not know your Google account, but they would still know that someone watched that video, and when, and potentially from where and via what third party, etc.

Don’t accept it. Don’t let them win

Privacy is a human right.

Visual of how much traffic you give YouTube using different alternatives and platforms

Feel free to use!

[quantumboogaloo]

EXACTLY

Using FreeTube isn’t bad. It’s just giving YouTube more traffic than other options, and I want people to be aware. Everyone deserves to have all the information to decide what is best for them.

Using Freetube is better than using YouTube directly. Using downloads is better than using freetube. Using only other platforms is better than using downloads. (“Better” here meaning “gives YouTube less traffic and is a more effective boycott tactic”)

This is an endurance test. One person downloads for a few weeks is a million times better than that one person boycotting the platform entirely for one day.

Visual of how much traffic you give YouTube using different alternatives and platforms

Feel free to use!

[quantumboogaloo]

i've got a list of alternatives that I'm working on at the moment, it's a wip but what I have finalized is public

Guys jsyk, Google as a whole is apparently doing the same thing with the ai age-estimation or age-verification policy

I'm in the middle of switching away from Google right now

fuck this shit

[quantumboogaloo]

Visual of how much traffic you give YouTube using different alternatives and platforms

Feel free to use!

[quantumboogaloo]

https://www.tumblr.com/quantumboogaloo/792326862203437056/it-is-working

Yessssss! Remember people boycotting creates pressure. As much as it sucks not using YouTube the longer we resist the better!

Remember we just finished week 1. Let’s keep on going! 😁😁👍👍

📎📎📎

[quantumboogaloo]

Making memes to bully the hell out of youtube for their ai age verification. Here're some I did so far.

Use these ALL you like. Let's harass YouTube together!

[quantumboogaloo]

The boycott is working, y'all. YouTube is panicking, trying to get people to buy Premium. They're advertising themselves on other platorms, when YT used to be the place to advertise. They're trying to bribe people with discount codes.

IT IS WORKING

Keep fighting the good fight

If you don't know about the YT boycott, I summarized it here

[quantumboogaloo]

YouTube and Google alternatives directory

In the document, click the outline button (as shown above) to view the outline of the document and skip to whatever interests you!

This document is a living document. It is constantly being updated and improved, with new recommendations and further research as needed. If you have any suggestions or corrections, feel free to let me know.

[quantumboogaloo]

A reminder to [big tech corporations], not to mess with [internet users who care about their privacy]

Some Alastor memes for the YT boycott

If you don't know about the boycott, may I recommend this post, where I think I summarized things quite well

[quantumboogaloo]

Personally, I’m using Firefox browser, DuckDuckGo search engine, proton for email, vpn, calendar, etc, and to replace Google docs/google suite: LibreOffice and Ellipsus

Guys jsyk, Google as a whole is apparently doing the same thing with the ai age-estimation or age-verification policy

I'm in the middle of switching away from Google right now

fuck this shit