Does YouTube Facilitate Knowledge or Surveillance?

YouTube is the second most popular website online globally, bested only by their parent company, Google (Alexa Internet, 2017). With over a billion global users, YouTube arguably creates a platform for democracy wherein we can discuss our views and listen to others, freely. However, YouTube is now regulating the allowed content and placing restrictions on content that is not ‘advertiser friendly’. Arguably, this restriction on what was once allowed on YouTube could be seen as a reflection on a surveillance society that censors us according to the consumerist ideals that corporations demand we live by. To consider the purpose and effects of YouTube on society, I will mainly be focussing on YouTube as part of an information society as well as the easy access to online surveillance and the ability to subject oneself to invasive surveillance, often directly or indirectly for commercial purposes.