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YouTube Recommendations Lead to More Extremist Content for Right-Leaning Users

ucdavis.edu

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Re: YouTube Recommendations Lead to More Extremist Content for Right-Leaning Users

#31

Post by dudul »

roenxi wrote: post #25

This seems a bit suspicious because there is a trend of defining right wing content as extremist. And I'm not interested in whether something is classified as a conspiricy so much as whether it is true. I'[ll pick on Ivermectin through COVID as an interesting case. Now, obviously, if you have 2 groups and one has parasites but the other doesn't then the parasite-free group will get better COVID results. So as expecte…

The fact that the idea of "conspiracy theory" survived the Snowden reveals shows how brainwashed/forgetful people can be.

Re: YouTube Recommendations Lead to More Extremist Content for Right-Leaning Users

#33

Post by krapp »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #29
thr_cust wrote: post #4

Excellent, the algorithms provide what the customer wants. It's not YouTubes place to be a nanny.

Yep, everybody that watches welding videos wants to be fed right-wing propaganda.

Statistically speaking, right-wing propaganda is far more popular than welding videos, so of course the algorithm is going to push it to anyone and everyone. Especially if there is any overlap in interests or subscriptions between the two groups.

The actual goal on the part of Youtube is not political activism but engagement for ad views. Polarizing content achieves that for people who want it and people who hate it.

Re: YouTube Recommendations Lead to More Extremist Content for Right-Leaning Users

#34

Post by roenxi »

dudul wrote: post #31
roenxi wrote: post #25

This seems a bit suspicious because there is a trend of defining right wing content as extremist. And I'm not interested in whether something is classified as a conspiricy so much as whether it is true. I'[ll pick on Ivermectin through COVID as an interesting case. Now, obviously, if you have 2 groups and one has parasites but the other doesn't then the parasite-free group will get better COVID results. So as expecte…

The fact that the idea of "conspiracy theory" survived the Snowden reveals shows how brainwashed/forgetful people can be.

Jeff Epstein too if we are going for specific examples. It is kinda tricky when conspiracy theorists are saying that the elites are a bunch of paedophiles and the evidence is there is rampant accepted paedophilia afoot in the elite circles.

I suppose the conspiracy part is would guessing how common it is?

Re: YouTube Recommendations Lead to More Extremist Content for Right-Leaning Users

#36

Post by foota »

In some ways I think this is a tricky problem since you want users to get deeper into some topics, but not ones that are considered "problematic", but defining those is inherently political.

It seems like you could define some idea of "depth" into a topic (based on how far out of normal viewer's patterns it is), and only generate recommendations for items that aren't far outside of the norm, but this would lead to a lack of depth for recommendations in niches.

Maybe a middle ground would be to treat sensitive topics differently in terms of "vertical" recommendations, by e.g., explicitly marking some categories as safe and enabling recommendations to go deeper, but only allowing "horizontal" recommendations for unknown topics, and maybe preventing recommendations "into" that topic from the outside.

So... if you're watching train videos you might get to see even more niche ones, but welding won't recommend for you fox news, and watching fox news won't show you Alex Jones recommendations.

I pick on the right here since it's in the topic (and I'm left leaning myself), but I think radicalization is an issue on the left as well (though frankly my political opinions make me think it is less impactful there, mostly because of the way people radicalize on the left I believe tends to impact less marginalized people or be in terms of policy rather than affecting people that are already beaten down).

Re: YouTube Recommendations Lead to More Extremist Content for Right-Leaning Users

#37

Post by autoexec »

dudul wrote: post #31
roenxi wrote: post #25

This seems a bit suspicious because there is a trend of defining right wing content as extremist. And I'm not interested in whether something is classified as a conspiricy so much as whether it is true. I'[ll pick on Ivermectin through COVID as an interesting case. Now, obviously, if you have 2 groups and one has parasites but the other doesn't then the parasite-free group will get better COVID results. So as expecte…

The fact that the idea of "conspiracy theory" survived the Snowden reveals shows how brainwashed/forgetful people can be.

Why wouldn't it? It's not as if the fact that some conspiracies are real means that they all are. There are plenty of loons who have all kinds of crazy conspiracy theories many of which have been proved wrong like satanic rituals in the non-existent basement of a pizza shop or the Earth being flat.

As long as there are paranoid people believing in crazy things without evidence (and often in opposition of actual evidence to the contrary) and others taking advantage of those people, the idea of "conspiracy theory" will flourish.

We just have to understand that not all conspiracy theories are equal, and that legitimate concerns can get dismissed as being a "conspiracy theory". We'll always have to evaluate theories involving conspiracies according to the evidence we have and decide for ourselves how likely they are and which ones are worth our time/energy.

Re: YouTube Recommendations Lead to More Extremist Content for Right-Leaning Users

#38

Post by xboxnolifes »

thelastknowngod wrote: post #32

I'd genuinely like to see what moderate right leaning content is even available for consumption. The only thing anyone seems to talk about anymore is the grifters and lunatics.

Plenty of moderate right content with regards to education concerns, government spending / taxing, and company regulations.

Re: YouTube Recommendations Lead to More Extremist Content for Right-Leaning Users

#39

Post by mcphage »

dudul wrote: post #13

While left leaning users are only presented with a healthy selection of diverse and well argumented videos expressing a panel of perfectly reasonable view points.

> healthy selection of diverse and well argumented videos

That’s what left-wing extremism is.

Re: YouTube Recommendations Lead to More Extremist Content for Right-Leaning Users

#40

Post by impegh »

wlesieutre wrote: post #2

Apparently this is a thing on Audible as well, as I learned recently from Penny Arcade https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2023/12/01/algo-rhythms > Gurb turned me on to a kick-ass book called "The Mysterious Case Of Rudolph Diesel," and I think you should read it if you're interested at all in the world, but you should buy it with cash in a town you don't live in and read it in a dimly lit cavern. Because if you don'…

I enjoy the comic and just about everything else everyone at PA develops, but it’s Holkin’s thrice weekly displays of absolute word sorcery that has kept me reading since 1998.
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