1·
1 year agoTechnical issues aside, they can do legal takedowns on the big instances and while they can also technically do small ones, I doubt they will. The thing is that a TOS violation can lead to a suspended google account, so it’s a ‘high risk, low probability’ event for self hosters with a google footprint (such as an android device).
I’m mainly saying that from the hosting side, especially if you’re hosting on a personal IP at home or something, the “nightmare” scenario is that google tracks you down based on information leaks and slaps you with a TOS violation and account suspension. They don’t need any actual evidence to screw with you, they hold all the cards regarding their services once they’ve decided to cause you trouble.
The more likely scenario is that people serving invidious at a scale noticable to google will have their hosting providers slapped with some kind of cease and desist. (Yes, not all hosting providers will have to comply, but many will - why deal with big tech lawyers over something like this?). That won’t stamp the service out, but it will make using it trickier and less reliable.