ShortFiat on Nostr: Digital platforms have created consolidation of power created a new form of digital ...

Digital platforms have created consolidation of power created a new form of digital feudalism, with creators becoming peasants on platform-owned land. Nowhere is this dynamic more stark than in video content, where YouTube's dominance has created a system of near-total dependency. Just as medieval peasants had no real choice but to work the lord's land or starve, video creators must accept YouTube's terms or forfeit any hope of reaching a meaningful audience.

The feudal parallels prove disturbingly precise. YouTube owns the digital land itself - the vast infrastructure required for video hosting and distribution. They control access to the marketplace of attention, determining which creators' work will be shown to audiences. Like medieval lords setting the terms of labor, they establish monetization rules and claim a significant portion of all revenue generated. Most crucially, they maintain the power of arbitrary eviction - account termination without warning or meaningful appeal.

Other video platforms technically exist, much as medieval peasants could theoretically attempt to farm unclaimed wilderness. But in practice, YouTube's concentration of audience attention makes building a sustainable creative business elsewhere virtually impossible. The platform's algorithm becomes the new weather - a force that determines the harvest of views and income, yet remains mysterious and beyond creator control. Years spent cultivating an audience can vanish overnight through algorithmic shifts or policy changes.

The platform's lordly powers extend into every aspect of creative work. They can insert advertisements into any content, modify how work appears to different audiences, expand or restrict distribution at will, change monetization terms without notice, block access entirely, and even share content with third parties. Creators, like feudal peasants, must simply accept these conditions or abandon their digital fields entirely. Each new policy update arrives like a lord's proclamation - to be obeyed without question or consultation. Each change forces creators to either comply or risk losing access to the audience they've spent years building. The platform's initial rights grab through terms of service enables perpetual control over creator behavior.

This isn't just a metaphorical comparison - it's an accurate description of power dynamics in the modern digital economy. Just as feudal lords derived their power from controlling access to agricultural land, platforms maintain their dominance by controlling access to human attention. The tools and terms may be different, but the fundamental relationship between lord and peasant, platform and creator, remains disturbingly similar.