diff --git a/internal/httpgetter/html_meta.go b/internal/httpgetter/html_meta.go
index cc179ef0..8e72b4b8 100644
--- a/internal/httpgetter/html_meta.go
+++ b/internal/httpgetter/html_meta.go
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ package httpgetter
 
 import (
 	"context"
-	"fmt"
 	"io"
 	"net"
 	"net/http"
@@ -265,7 +264,7 @@ func (f *HTMLMetaFetcher) fetch(ctx context.Context, urlStr string) (*HTMLMeta,
 		oEmbed, _ = f.fetchOEmbed(ctx, endpoint)
 	}
 
-	meta := mergeMetadata(baseURL, oEmbed, sources.openGraph, sources.twitter, sources.jsonLD, sources.standard, siteImageSource(pageURL), sources.semantic)
+	meta := mergeMetadata(baseURL, oEmbed, sources.openGraph, sources.twitter, sources.jsonLD, sources.standard, sources.semantic)
 	return meta, nil
 }
 
@@ -396,15 +395,3 @@ func cloneHTMLMeta(meta *HTMLMeta) *HTMLMeta {
 	copy := *meta
 	return &copy
 }
-
-// siteImageSource supplies deterministic site-specific thumbnails that outrank
-// the low-confidence semantic <img> fallback but lose to metadata the site
-// itself declares.
-func siteImageSource(pageURL *url.URL) metadataSource {
-	if pageURL.Hostname() == "www.youtube.com" && pageURL.Path == "/watch" {
-		if videoID := pageURL.Query().Get("v"); videoID != "" {
-			return metadataSource{image: fmt.Sprintf("https://img.youtube.com/vi/%s/mqdefault.jpg", url.PathEscape(videoID))}
-		}
-	}
-	return metadataSource{}
-}
diff --git a/internal/httpgetter/html_meta_test.go b/internal/httpgetter/html_meta_test.go
index 73cda947..b3c02a54 100644
--- a/internal/httpgetter/html_meta_test.go
+++ b/internal/httpgetter/html_meta_test.go
@@ -257,14 +257,6 @@ func TestHTMLMetaFetcherDefaultHeadersAndDeadline(t *testing.T) {
 	require.Equal(t, fetchTimeout, newHTTPClient().Timeout)
 }
 
-func TestSiteImageSourceEscapesYouTubeVideoID(t *testing.T) {
-	pageURL, err := url.Parse("https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=video%2Fsegment%3Fvariant")
-	require.NoError(t, err)
-
-	source := siteImageSource(pageURL)
-	require.Equal(t, "https://img.youtube.com/vi/video%2Fsegment%3Fvariant/mqdefault.jpg", source.image)
-}
-
 func TestHTMLMetaFetcherResolvesAgainstFinalResponseURL(t *testing.T) {
 	fetcher := newTestFetcher(roundTripFunc(func(req *http.Request) (*http.Response, error) {
 		finalRequest := req.Clone(req.Context())