Much of the conversation about video and content over the last few weeks has been about the silencing of Jimmy Kimmels's show and the fact that we're seeing a shockingly rapid move towards the type of censorious media control typical of most authoritarian regimes.

But there's a broader trend that poses a looming threat to online video creators that I think is going a bit under the radar, so I took a minute to pull together a quick short-form video on the topic:

The key things that have shifted can be summarized with three points:

1. TikTok Takeover: The cronyism exploited to hand TikTok to Larry Ellison for a fraction of its worth, setting up the danger of its platform amplifying content controlled by the administration, and silencing dissenting voices.
2. Vimeo Vulnerability: The consolidation of a number of the major streaming video infrastructure providers (including Vimeo, one of the most important) under Bending Spoons, the notorious conglomerate which not only tends to enshittify its products, but which will now also present a unified target for the same censors who went after voices like Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert.
3. Creator Capture: The lack of available and accessible open alternatives to major distribution platforms like YouTube and TikTok — there's no "BlueSky for video" or "Mastodon for video", meaning there isn't the same opportunity for video creators to make themselves resilient to a platform takeover.

All of this is trying to make clear to video creators that they need to embrace the same radical control that podcasters have always had.

Separately, I'm also (obviously!) using this as a chance to start sharing a bit more of the videos I've been making lately. It's still very early, and I'm not quite sure what direction they're headed, so please do share any feedback you've got.

In general, I'm going to try to complement my writing here with some videos from time to time, just to make some of these concepts more accessible to different audiences. If you're inclined, please do take a look, and share them with people who might find them interesting. (I'm expecting to use both quick vertical formats and more substantive traditional horizontal videos, and to post across most of the major social networks so as to not be overly dependent on any one platform.)