Google wants to stop high-definition video playback on YouTube in a bid to reduce bandwidth usage in Europe due to covid-19.
According to Reuters, Google announced that YouTube will stop offering high-definition video in Europe for the duration of the covid-19 pandemic. The throttling measure is the company's attempt to reduce bandwidth usage and avoid overclockingcharging of the internet on the old continent.
Europe is now virtually plagued by the covid-19 pandemic, and a majority of countries this week called on a large portion of workers to continue working from home.
Thus, the use of the internet has increased and some online productincluding Microsoft software struggle to stay connected due to the large number of connections and teleconferencing. It Facebook also confirmed that the WhatsApp faced issues due to the surge in traffic, with the company doubling the number of servers to accommodate the messaging service.
The head of the European industry UnionMr. Thierry Breton requested a reduction in the quality of YouTube videos and correspondingly other streaming companies, in an effort to avoid internet outages. Google is one of the first companies to move forward with the requirement.
However at the time of writing this article YouTube is still showing videos with resolutions such as 2160p-HD, 1440p-HD, 1080p-HD and 720p-HD.
Netflix is expected to make a similar announcement of quality reduction.