Consider migrating away from YouTube as the main video host

[corrideat]

Problem

It seems like YouTube has started rolling out an update that blocks watching videos unless signed in. The message shown is 'Sign in to confirm you’re not a bot'.

I'm not sure what triggers it, but so far it seems to be related to IP reputation (i.e., it doesn't seem to be the case that all public viewing is blocked). For example, it seems like this happens disproportionately when using a VPN, although I've seen reports of this happening without a VPN on, which I haven't been able to reproduce myself (yet).

From reports I've read, this update isn't 'new', but it seems like it's gotten more aggressive as of late. For example, I'm often unable to use alternative frontends to YouTube, such as public Invidious instances.

This issue is especially bad for embedded videos, as from the reports I've seen, the error is still displayed even when logged in to YouTube. I suppose this has to do with cookies.

In any case, I think that this move could be a reason to consider using an alternative host. Other than self-hosting, I can't vouch for any particular platform, and all of the 'big' ones seem to be privacy-hostile. With that said, I haven't had this particular issue (of public access being blocked) with any other provider.

This is the YouTube help page on this issue:

Below there are screenshots of the error message in question

Solution

Find an alternative video host to use on embeds and for general promotion (ideally, one that also is privacy-friendly). I'm not proposing getting rid of YouTube entirely, but just not using it as the main video host (i.e., I see no reason not to syndicate content to YouTube).