If someone posts a YouTube link on Facebook it will show the thumbnail and the description and that’s it. There’s literally no way to locate the video because it obscures the address, ensuring that the only way to reach that link is by clicking it and running through Facebook’s tracking system (l.facebook.com).
YouTube itself has also begun doing the same thing, obscuring the title and channel in the browser, so you can’t even search for the video via FreeTube or NewPipe or anything else.
Reddit is also doing this now by hijacking links and redirecting to out.reddit.com
It could only know that by navigating to the link in the background. That would have side effects, like them being able to track you even when you don’t click on links.
The point of this is that it’s a redirect. The link isn’t taking you to xyz.com, it’s going to abc.com which redirects to xyz.com. The abc.com server redirects to the second link – there’s no way to know where it’ll take you unless you follow it.
No it’s the browser’s fault for enabling the deception. You have to assume that any given website is malicious. The browser is a security product that is supposed to be on our side and protect us from evil websites. Blaming the website for exploiting protection failures puts the responsibility in the wrong place. It’s like taking counterfeit antibiotics, getting sick, and blaming the germs.
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