Anyone with a modicum of technical skills can host a PeerTube server, aka an instance. Each instance hosts its users and their videos. In this way, <strong>every instance is created, moderated and maintained independently by various administrators.</strong>
You can still watch from your account videos hosted by other instances though if the administrator of your instance had previously connected it with other instances.
Storage: can be mitigated using <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://docs.joinpeertube.org/maintain/remote-storage">S3/Object storage</a>
And there's more! PeerTube uses <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://activitypub.rocks">ActivityPub</a>, a federating protocol that <strong>allows you to interact with other software</strong>, provided they also use this protocol. For example, PeerTube and Mastodon -a Twitter alternative- are connected: <strong>you can follow a PeerTube user from Mastodon</strong> (the latest videos from the PeerTube account you follow will appear in your feed), <strong>and even comment on a PeerTube-hosted video directly from your Mastodon's account.</strong>
Update your name, avatar or description in <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://docs.joinpeertube.org/use/setup-account#update-your-profile">your profile</a>
Mainstream online video broadcasting services make money off of your data by analyzing your interactions so that they can then bombard your with targeted advertising.
Most importantly, <strong>you are a person to PeerTube, not a product in need of profiling so as to be stuck in video loops.</strong> For example, PeerTube doesn't use any biased recommendation algorithms to keep you online for hours on end.
All of this is made possible by Peertube's free/libre license (GNU-AGPL). Its code is a digital "common", that belongs to everybody, instead of a secret formula that belongs to Google (in the case of Youtube) or to Vivendi/Bolloré (Dailymotion). This free/libre license <strong>guarantees our fundamental freedoms as users and allows many contributors to offer evolutions and new features.</strong>
YouTube has clearly gone astray: its hoster, Google-Alphabet, can enforce its ContentID system (the infamous "Robocopyright") or its videos recommendation system, all of which appear to be as obscure as unfair.