YouTube announced it will be shutting down after eight years in business and will no longer accept videos. The news comes just before April Fools’ Day.
The company teamed up with The Onion to create a YouTube-star-studded video explaining how the site was set up as part of a contest to find the best home video on the Internet, Mashable reports.
“We are so close to the end,” Tom Liston, communications director at YouTube, said in the video. “Tonight at midnight, YouTube.com will no longer be accepting entries. After eight amazing years, it’s finally time to review everything that has been uploaded to our site and begin the process of selecting a winner.”
YouTube said every video on the site will be reviewed by a panel of judges and it will take 10 years to watch them all. The winner will be announced in 2023, when the site finally comes back online.
In an attempt to make the prank more believable, YouTube added a live stream of two faux presenters announcing “Best Video” nominees, which will run on the site for 12 hours.
