The site’s crackdown on radicalization seems to have worked. But the world will never know what was happening before that.
Very, Very Few People Are Falling Down the YouTube Rabbit Hole | The site’s crackdown on radicalization seems to have worked. But the world will never know what was happening before that::The site’s crackdown on radicalization seems to have worked. But the world will never know what was happening before that.
What a load of dog dung that article is. Justifying censorship, labelling everything that is not liked by some politicial “expert” as far right extreme.
When an algorithm is involved, things change. These aren’t static websites that only get passed around by real people. This is some bizarre pseudo intelligence that thinks if you like WWII history and bratwurst, that you’d also like neo-nazi content. That’s not an exaggeration. One of my very left leaning friends started getting neo-nazi videos suggested to him and I suspect it was for those reasons.
Also, youtube isn’t a free speech platform. It’s an advertisement platform. Fediverse is a free speech platform, although it’s free speech for the person paying the hosting bills.
I was aware of this study when they presented it virtually (can’t remember where), and while I don’t have an issue with their approach and results, I’m more concerned about the implications of these numbers. The few percent that were exposed to extremist content may seen small. But scaling that up to population level, personally that is worrisome to me … The impact of the few very very bad apples can still catastrophic.
Weird. Youtube keeps recommending right wing videos even though I’ve purged them from my watch history and always selected Not Interested. It got to the point that I installed a 3rd party channel blocker.
I don’t even watch too many left leaning political videos and even those are just tangentially political.
I’ve been watching tutorials on jump ropes and kickboxing. I do watch YouTube shorts, but lately I’m being shown Andrew Tate stuff. I didn’t skip it quick enough, now 10% of the things I see are right leaning bot created contents. Slowly gun related, self defense, and Minecraft are taking over my YouTube shorts.
Indicating “not interested” shows engagement on your part. Therefore the algorithm provides you with more content like that so that you will engage more.
You can try blocking the channel, which has mixed results for the same reason, or closing youtube and staying away from it for a few hours on that account.
I don’t know if this is accurate or not, but it’s the most nonsensical thing I’ve heard in a while. If engaging with something to say, “I don’t want to see this,” results in more of that content - the user will eventually leave the platform. I’m having this concern right now with my Google feed. I keep clicking not interested, yet continue getting similar content. Consequently, I’m increasingly leaning toward disabling the functionality because I’m tired of fucking seeing shit I don’t care to see. Getting angry just thinking about it.
I can only offer my own experience as evidence, but this is what I was advised to do (stop engaging by not selecting anything) and it worked. Prior to that I kept getting tons of stuff that I didn’t want to see, but it stopped within a few days once I stopped engaging with it. And I agree, it is infuriating.
Because I got this advice from someone else, I guess it has worked for others too.
I know everyone likes to be conspiracy on this but it’s really just trying to get your attention any way possible. There’s more right wing popular political videos, so the algorithm is more likely to suggest them. These videos also get lots of views so again, more likely to be suggested.
I’ve already said I installed a channel blocker to deal with the problem, but it’s still annoying that a computer has me in their database as liking right wing shit. If it was limited to just youtube recommendations, it would be nothing, but we’re on a slow burn to a dystopian hell. Google has no reason not to use their personality profile of me elsewhere.
I made this comment elsewhere, but I have a very liberal friend who’s German, likes German food, and is into wwii era history. Facebook was suggesting neo-nazi groups to him.
I watch a little flashgitz and now I’m being recommended FreedomToons. I get that’s some people that like flashgitz are going to be terrible, but I shouldn’t have to click Not Interested more then once.
A lot of damage is done, certainly, but I think any success they have will depend on keeping up this bullshit. New voters are growing up all the time. The less chance for them to fall down the QAnon conspiracy after they just wanted to find some video game guide content, the better.
Never had this problem, never used YT while logged on. Just incognito and careful search keywords. If the algo recommended something sus, immediately close your incognito session and open a new one.
I keep getting ‘rescue’ animal videos which involve people purposely putting puppies and kittens in destressing situations so they can ‘save them’ its sick and no matter how often i block and report those videos they re-appear next month. I also get alot of ‘police shooting people’ videos which i also try to block
I think it’s just a matter of fine tuning your preferences. I’ve never an irrelevant video recommended to me within the last few years. All the recommendations have been great. Retro hardware reviews, video game gameplay guides, science videos, and other informational/engineering stuff.
Very, Very Few People Are Falling Down the YouTube Rabbit Hole | The site’s crackdown on radicalization seems to have worked. But the world will never know what was happening before that::The site’s crackdown on radicalization seems to have worked. But the world will never know what was happening before that.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !technology@lemmy.world
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
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What a load of dog dung that article is. Justifying censorship, labelling everything that is not liked by some politicial “expert” as far right extreme.
When an algorithm is involved, things change. These aren’t static websites that only get passed around by real people. This is some bizarre pseudo intelligence that thinks if you like WWII history and bratwurst, that you’d also like neo-nazi content. That’s not an exaggeration. One of my very left leaning friends started getting neo-nazi videos suggested to him and I suspect it was for those reasons.
Also, youtube isn’t a free speech platform. It’s an advertisement platform. Fediverse is a free speech platform, although it’s free speech for the person paying the hosting bills.
Censorship of online content is good, but simultaneously the censorship of sexually explicit books in elementary schools is evil.
Neat.
Bro people were eating tidepods and we saw a resurgence of nazism and white nationlism.
I think we at least know the effects of what was happening before.
Could we convince the Nazis to eat the tide pods?
…probably
They are a famously suggestible lot
…something something… making your whites whiter… they’ll get the message they’re after
I was aware of this study when they presented it virtually (can’t remember where), and while I don’t have an issue with their approach and results, I’m more concerned about the implications of these numbers. The few percent that were exposed to extremist content may seen small. But scaling that up to population level, personally that is worrisome to me … The impact of the few very very bad apples can still catastrophic.
Weird. Youtube keeps recommending right wing videos even though I’ve purged them from my watch history and always selected Not Interested. It got to the point that I installed a 3rd party channel blocker.
I don’t even watch too many left leaning political videos and even those are just tangentially political.
I’ve been watching tutorials on jump ropes and kickboxing. I do watch YouTube shorts, but lately I’m being shown Andrew Tate stuff. I didn’t skip it quick enough, now 10% of the things I see are right leaning bot created contents. Slowly gun related, self defense, and Minecraft are taking over my YouTube shorts.
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Uncle Bruce?
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Bargoooooons!!
Oh, you like WW2 documentaries about how liberal democracy crushed fascism strategically, industrially, scientifically and morally?
Well you might enjoy these videos made by actual Nazis complaining about gender neutral bathrooms!
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Indicating “not interested” shows engagement on your part. Therefore the algorithm provides you with more content like that so that you will engage more.
You can try blocking the channel, which has mixed results for the same reason, or closing youtube and staying away from it for a few hours on that account.
If I click Not Interested increases the likely hood of getting more of the same, then all the more reason to run ad blockers.
The Channel Blocker is a 3rd party tool. It just hides the channel from view. Google shouldn’t know I’m doing it.
I don’t know if this is accurate or not, but it’s the most nonsensical thing I’ve heard in a while. If engaging with something to say, “I don’t want to see this,” results in more of that content - the user will eventually leave the platform. I’m having this concern right now with my Google feed. I keep clicking not interested, yet continue getting similar content. Consequently, I’m increasingly leaning toward disabling the functionality because I’m tired of fucking seeing shit I don’t care to see. Getting angry just thinking about it.
I can only offer my own experience as evidence, but this is what I was advised to do (stop engaging by not selecting anything) and it worked. Prior to that I kept getting tons of stuff that I didn’t want to see, but it stopped within a few days once I stopped engaging with it. And I agree, it is infuriating.
Because I got this advice from someone else, I guess it has worked for others too.
I know everyone likes to be conspiracy on this but it’s really just trying to get your attention any way possible. There’s more right wing popular political videos, so the algorithm is more likely to suggest them. These videos also get lots of views so again, more likely to be suggested.
Just ignore them and watch what you like
I’ve already said I installed a channel blocker to deal with the problem, but it’s still annoying that a computer has me in their database as liking right wing shit. If it was limited to just youtube recommendations, it would be nothing, but we’re on a slow burn to a dystopian hell. Google has no reason not to use their personality profile of me elsewhere.
I made this comment elsewhere, but I have a very liberal friend who’s German, likes German food, and is into wwii era history. Facebook was suggesting neo-nazi groups to him.
I watch a little flashgitz and now I’m being recommended FreedomToons. I get that’s some people that like flashgitz are going to be terrible, but I shouldn’t have to click Not Interested more then once.
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I’m bombarded by Joe Rogan stuff. I keep blocking the channels but there is an endless stream of them
If it’s true that they have closed the radicalization rabbit hole then that is a huge achievement and very very good news.
Now that they’ve entrenched an entire alternative universe in an election-winning proportion of the population, they don’t need it anymore.
Unless YouTube is going to be deliberately directing people to deprogramming content it’s too late.
A lot of damage is done, certainly, but I think any success they have will depend on keeping up this bullshit. New voters are growing up all the time. The less chance for them to fall down the QAnon conspiracy after they just wanted to find some video game guide content, the better.
because tiktok replaced yotube in that regard
Never had this problem, never used YT while logged on. Just incognito and careful search keywords. If the algo recommended something sus, immediately close your incognito session and open a new one.
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I HAVE THE SHINEYIST MEAT BYCYCLE
I keep getting ‘rescue’ animal videos which involve people purposely putting puppies and kittens in destressing situations so they can ‘save them’ its sick and no matter how often i block and report those videos they re-appear next month. I also get alot of ‘police shooting people’ videos which i also try to block
I think it’s just a matter of fine tuning your preferences. I’ve never an irrelevant video recommended to me within the last few years. All the recommendations have been great. Retro hardware reviews, video game gameplay guides, science videos, and other informational/engineering stuff.
Very, Very Few People Are Falling Down the YouTube Rabbit Hole | The site’s crackdown on radicalization seems to have worked. But the world will never know what was happening before that::The site’s crackdown on radicalization seems to have worked. But the world will never know what was happening before that.