What's the fuss about Youtube comments linking to Google Plus?

The comments section on Youtube used to be a virtual cesspool. Most comments included homophobia, racism, sexism and capslock, with a generous helping of expletives - and that’s just on the cat videos.

In a step to clear up the mess, Youtube mandated last week that users must sign up for Google Plus, its social network, which would link the Youtube account to the user’s actual identity. This triggered a violent backlash by users, and has resulted in a very unhappy Internet.

A Change.org petition for changing the comments section back to its original form has already been signed by 1,10,695 users. “Google is forcing us to make google+ accounts and invading our social life to comment on a youtube video and trying to take away our anonymous profile,” reads the petition . “They are also trying to censor us unless we share the same worldview as they do.”

Reddit users (a forum also notorious for being uncensored and focusing on anonymity) spammed the Google products forum with almost 5,00,000 comments.

In a more creative expression of dissent,Englishmusician Emma Blackery lashed out at Google’s video site and social network , telling the search giant in a song to “leave us alone, we just want to make videos.“The catchy tune quickly earned upwards of 694,000 views in two days, and 31,528 comments - only 42 of which were posted via Google+.

And the unease goes all the way to the top - Youtube co-founder Jawed Karim posted on his Youtube page : “Why the f**k do i need a google+ account to comment on a video?”

The move was aimed at not only turning the famously murky Youtube comments section into an actual conversation, but also give a leg-up to the flagging popularity of Google Plus.

So what is the problem with Google’s attempted integration? Some have said that using algorithms to promote some comments over others is counter-productive because it makes trolls more visible. Vi Hart, a very popular mathematics blogger, wrote about why she dislikes the new comments section:

“Now even discussion is curated by Google, rewarding those who talk often, and promoting hateful inflammatory comments because they provoke responses. Taking all the collected data and computational power of Google and using it to optimally encourage people to watch advertisements and argue with each other is, in this author’s opinion, brazenly unethical.”

But others have shrugged it off - if it cleans up the toxic comments section, why not? And anyway, as CNET’s editor in chiefLindseyTurrentine points out: “I believe resistance is completely futile,” she said to Marketplace.org . “Here’s the thing: You can’t escape Google.”