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I don't work at YouTube, but it is highly unlikely that they have a Brexit department or a divisiveness department. What they have is machine learning. The goa

I don't work at YouTube, but it is highly unlikely that they have a Brexit department or a divisiveness department. What they have is machine learning. The goal of their Algorithm is to maximize for watch time. Any behavior that leads to longer watch time will be promoted. If a user watches 2 videos, leaves the platform for a while then comes back later to watch a third, the system will have learned what video to suggest to another person who watched only the first two. If the system can't determine what to show next, it will choose the video that has a record of increasing watch time.

veidr 8y ago
That seems consistent with what the author is saying. Working inside of YouTube, he was in a position to see that the algorithms heavily promoted Brexit. However, for people not directly involved in YouTube's operations, this is not necessarily apparent — and is essentially impossible to check. His point is that the ultimate outcomes of this algorithmic selection has potentially massive societal repercussions, and therefore the citizenry deserves to know what is being selected for promotion.
imh 8y ago
> divisiveness department I'd bet something along the lines of "absolute_value(upvotes divided by total votes - 50%)" is a feature somewhere. That's how I interpreted OP.