I had no idea. You’re right. It was a $15B business in 2019. https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/3/21121207/youtube-google-alphabet-earnings-revenue-first-time-reveal-q4-2019

Makes the ads seem even more obscene now that I know that.

I agree. I’m not thinking about USA at all.

As for the EU, we should fund a federated or decentralised system. I think it works well on Lemmy. For example I know not to trust feddit.org for anything related to Palestine. Content on other servers shows their pro-Israel bias.

I think a system like that could benefit the US to a point, at least until the government block all external news and commentary.

A centralized platform providing infrastructure could be financed using a tax on every internet subscription.