Painful to hear. I have noticed a steady increase in user capture tactics across all big tech. I successfully dropped YT earlier this year, and have been using some (still working) Invidious public instances. I decided to block YT at a dns level to stop my urge to bypass privacy for convenience when a player had issues, but now if a video doesn't load, I go outside or read a chapter in a book. 10/10 would recommend to fight a YT addiction if you think you have one.
Unfortunately, there has been a concerted effort by big tech to destroy the feasibility of privacy-preserving front-ends and open-source clients recently, including YouTube, X, and Reddit.
All three have taken steps that destroyed Invidious, Nitter, and Teddit usability.
As such I've simply taken down my instances of all three as they have been unusable for some time and have no realistic workarounds for public instances at this time. If that changes I will put them all back up, but for now it's just not possible to run public instances of any.
It's *extremely* sad to see the hard work of the contributors of these three projects destroyed by the flick of a switch by big tech companies, but is yet another reminder to stop relying on big tech and start taking social media and media itself into your own hands.
For a YouTube alternative, consider PeerTube.
For an X alternative, congrats, you're already on Nostr 👋
For a Reddit alternative, I honestly don't have a recommendation outside of some Lemmy and forum usage.
Note that both Nitter and Invidious are working hard on workarounds and fixes, but Teddit seems to be completely dead due to API monetization of Reddit. I'll try to keep updates on Nitter and Invidious status if workarounds that are feasible show up.
If you do still want to use YouTube, I highly recommend FreeTube as an open-source desktop client:
https://github.com/FreeTubeApp/FreeTube
I don't touch YouTube without it since Invidious went down. You can easily import your subscriptions from YouTube and other clients like NewPipe here:
https://docs.freetubeapp.io/usage/importing-subscriptions/
If you're on Android you should be using NewPipe, absolutely amazing FOSS client that blocks ads, allows downloads, etc.:
newpipe.net
Tips if you do need to use X on the go for some reason:
1. Use a VPN
2. Use a good browser with ad/cookie blocking
3. Use the progressive web app (simple add to home screen from Safari/Brave/etc) instead of the "proper" app
Not really any other options, sadly, but that prevents the majority of tracking!
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