YouTube is the world's largest video platform, and many developers will develop various third-party functions/services (such as video download, ad blocking, double-speed playback, etc.) around this platform to improve the video viewing experience.
Invidious is a free and open source alternative to YouTube, which allows users to watch YouTube videos without being tracked by Google, avoiding data being collected and used for personalized recommendations, and preventing personal video homepages from being blocked by various content Shuffle, in addition to protecting user privacy, Invidious also has other features such as light weight and no ads.
Recently, YouTube's legal team sent an email to Invidious's development team, asking them to stop providing services to users within 7 days. According to the developer's description, the content of the email indicates that YouTube has recently noticed the service and determined that Invidious violated the YouTube API's terms of service and developer policies.
In response, Invidious project manager TheFrenchGhosty recently replied on GitHub that Invidious does not use YouTube's API to fetch and display videos, and they do not need to agree to any of YouTube's terms of service or policies, so they will not abide by YouTube's legal team requirements.
It's going to be business as usual until it can't go on anymore
However, on GitHub, TheFrenchGhosty also expressed some concerns. At present, they are not sure whether the YouTube team will put pressure on GitHub to delete this warehouse. The future of Invidious is still unclear. The Invidious team is still waiting to see what happens, and has yet to respond to emails from YouTube.