Google controls 90% of the internet
Google doesn't control shit, and you're referring to the web, not the internet. Nobody forces you to use YouTube, Maps or their search engine. The websites you visit choose to incorporate Google analytics and ads, which you can easily block if you feel enslaved in that sense.
Nobody is forcing you to use their services.
Quite a significant change, when 1 km2 is about 140 (real) football fields
The key here is external. HR workers often have an incentive to quiet down such cases.
I'm no Google fan, but it's borderline impossible to moderate a site of that size. It's a legal nightmare that cannot be solved by just humans. Read some articles about the human moderators of sites like YouTube and Facebook. Those people see some shit.
But yes, YouTube should definitely improve their escalation system, and pay more attention to refuted strikes. It sucks to see innocent creators get punished by a broken system.
I was never really on Digg, even though I was on the Internet since the early 00's, but yeah, everything dies eventually.
Can't think of anything aside from some obscure message boards that still exist today.
Reddit could suffer a 50% user drop and still make bank, but that won't happen within the decade.
Enthusiasts who want to earn money off the platform, yes.
Boost for Lemmy is coming though
It's not trying to piss you off, it's trying to make money, as it should. Do you have any idea how much money it costs to run the infrastructure behind YouTube? Neither do I, because it's unfathomable.
I pay for YouTube Premium along with 5 friends. It's $5 per month per person. Beats any streaming service by miles.
I do, however pirate all my movies (except for the occasional cinema visit) and TV shows.
So don't buy a fucking iPhone or a Google Pixel or whatever, it's your choice.