https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2023/11/increasing-trust-for-embedded-media.html
We’re piloting an experimental Android WebView Media Integrity API with select embedded media providers early next year.
Google is already up to their old tricks again
When faced with a severe backlash, Google's response is always "We heard you. We've killed it. Here's an alternative" - and then proceeds to offer the same wine with minor changes in a new bottle.
This is what happened when FLoC was replaced with Topics. This is what's happening with WEI. They say that they will limit it to webview and embedded media! They talk as if they are doing us a favor! As if their stupid play protect and app geo-locking isn't causing widespread misery already!
Google - we weren't asking for a replacement. It wasn't a necessary functionality that was implemented badly. It was an evil functionality that shouldn't have been proposed in the first place! Of course you won't listen to us! You only took a small tactical step back due to the enormous hit you took to your image. But sure as hell, you consider your profits as more important than all the benefits of the web or the well being of billions of its users. You will get it by hook or crook - ethics and morality be damned!
If there's anyone who's still using chrome or one of its derivatives - ask yourself the reason for staying with it. You may have a hundred reasons. But at the end of the day, it will boil down to just two - convenience and laziness. You are not willing to part with even a small feature even after knowing that Chrome's creators are out to destroy the web for everyone except themselves. You forgot that freedom is not a right - it's something you have to fight for and earn. And in this battle, you laid down your weapons without a fight and let Google subject you and everyone else to their greed. Chrome's market share allows them to control the web standards and the web ecosystem. You are complicit in the damage the web is taking - because you chose convenience over principles.
If Google is to be chastised for abusing its user base this needs to go beyond boycotts of Chrome browser. It's my hope people stop accepting Google's gaslighting and send the message by quitting all of their services and products. Viable alternatives exist.