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Comment by smoldesu | Hacker News Reader

> youtube deleted 700 videos created for internal training for our company

I don't mean to be an asshole, but nobody guarantees you that your videos will stay up perpetually on YouTube. Especially if you've got hundreds of private or unlisted videos, it doesn't particularly surprise me that YouTube would pull them down, even if only for petty reasons. If you've been following the state of their website over the past few years, this sort of behavior is becoming quite common, and even among YouTubers with millions of followers I don't think I've seen them reverse a claim of this scale.

Yes, it's a shame. If you don't have them on your own computer though, then are they really yours? It's a hard way to learn that local backups are important, and "the cloud" isn't a panacea for your storage needs.

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> "the cloud" isn't a panacea for your storage needs.

Except that is exactly how cloud companies market themselves. That is exactly what cloud companies have been telling consumers for a decade+.

Right up to the point of commercials showing someone lose a device and saying “no worries, it’s all in the cloud!”, etc. We’ve been told for years that our data is safer in the cloud than it is on our own devices. That the cloud itself IS the backup system.

Normal people didn’t just arrive at this conclusion on their own. They were fed it directly from the companies that we are all now supposed to just innately understand are not to be trusted with our data.

Sounds like either side was complicit in the matter. Again, I know it's not an easy pill to swallow (I anticipate both these comments will be dead or grey in time), but that's just how computers work. All the effort we put into abstraction is worthless if it allows (or in this case, encourages) the end-user to make catastrophic mistakes.

YouTube has never promised or implied your videos that are on their servers for free would be there forever.

The more cynical among us never believed their lies and knew things like this would happen. I hope normal people also start realising that they were being fed marketing BS all along, and no doubt the more things like this happen, the sooner they will.

Giving away all assets to one cloud company is definitely risky.

'The Cloud' is just someone else's computer. Nothing more nothing less

In a thread full of unhelpful, pedantic comments this is a podium finisher for sure.

It's just one of those memes on the net, I'm sure GP meant no harm at this time. Do a google for it, it's everywhere. We have all been bitten by it.

I mean it's a statement of fact, not really a meme. I've heard it before, I've said it before. But it's irrelevant in this context.

Ok, thanks.

Youtube isn't "the cloud". It's an entertainment provider like TV, it's not really something you mistake for backup of your stuff.

Maybe to the more technical crowd that’s true. But to the average person uploading their videos to YouTube it most definitely is.

If YouTube decided that they didn’t want to host 700 unlisted videos that’s perfectly within their right; however, if that is the case then they should tell the user why their videos are being taken down with a deadline for them to download their videos. It would be wrong for YouTube to claim your videos are “cyberbullying” just so they can free up some space.

I think they know that, there’s no need to repeat the obvious just because it will make ourselves feel better.

People fuck up, it’s just a matter of when, and when we do it’s better to help and hope that some day you’ll be helped in turn.

To be fair, the rise of these arbitrary AI-based deletions with no recourse are a drastic shift in how Google treats its users, and most people who don't work in tech or follow HN haven't caught on yet.

And why should they? Google actively markets itself as trustworthy. Unless you know someone who has been burned, the average non-professional YouTube user who just thought it was a sensible way to host their videos would not be aware of the pattern.

Horrible answer but 100% correct.

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