4 ms·

Have the recommendation system mix it up, put niches that are somewhat similar in the recommendations not quite as often, put things a bit further away less oft

by pitay 7y ago

Have the recommendation system mix it up, put niches that are somewhat similar in the recommendations not quite as often, put things a bit further away less often, etc. This should have the algorithm recommend counterpoints which are clearly visible to the user. This is assuming things that are partisan one way are similar to things that are partisan in the other way and counter partisan content. Avoid censorship, censorship is too easily abused.

pjc50 7y ago
We should not classify "refusal to ever recommend X because you know X to be untrue or defamatory" as censorship.
- pitay 7y ago
  I didn't mention anything specific, so I am not sure what you are replying to. Your example can be dealt with better in other ways, such as putting a prominent statement with a brief description of why something is untrue and a link to further information. For YouTube something like a popup that appears on the video which has to be manually closed, and also the information appearing under the video. Censorship in general is terrible, and abused very regularly. Even on the really small scale I see little mafias pop up all the time, such as on forums, where anyone a bit critical of the select group gets banned and their posts deleted. On a larger scale is Putin announcing that criticism of the state is to be censored, citing other European laws do just that and punish people for what they say. If someone is censoring someone it is just extremely suspicious, and I don't blame anyone for going 'it is censored, therefor it is likely true', because the censor has removed the information that could be used as evidence for whatever it is. "When you tear out a man's tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you fear what he might say." - George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings
- golergka 7y ago
  It's not censorship, but this position makes you not simply a neutral platform, but an opinionated editor.
  - pjc50 7y ago
    The platform is not and cannot be neutral; they necessarily remove porn and copyright infringing material, plus whatever they are legally obliged to do in various countries. An endless series of judgement calls. Moreover, we're talking about the recommendation algorithm. The only neutral recommendation algorithm is a random number generator. Everything else is making a decision that video X is "better" than video Y for user Z. What it means to be "better" is difficult to analyse, but Google themselves must be constantly reviewing that question.

by pitay 7y ago

pjc50 7y ago

We should not classify "refusal to ever recommend X because you know X to be untrue or defamatory" as censorship.

pitay 7y ago
I didn't mention anything specific, so I am not sure what you are replying to. Your example can be dealt with better in other ways, such as putting a prominent statement with a brief description of why something is untrue and a link to further information. For YouTube something like a popup that appears on the video which has to be manually closed, and also the information appearing under the video. Censorship in general is terrible, and abused very regularly. Even on the really small scale I see little mafias pop up all the time, such as on forums, where anyone a bit critical of the select group gets banned and their posts deleted. On a larger scale is Putin announcing that criticism of the state is to be censored, citing other European laws do just that and punish people for what they say. If someone is censoring someone it is just extremely suspicious, and I don't blame anyone for going 'it is censored, therefor it is likely true', because the censor has removed the information that could be used as evidence for whatever it is. "When you tear out a man's tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you fear what he might say." - George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings
golergka 7y ago
It's not censorship, but this position makes you not simply a neutral platform, but an opinionated editor.
- pjc50 7y ago
  The platform is not and cannot be neutral; they necessarily remove porn and copyright infringing material, plus whatever they are legally obliged to do in various countries. An endless series of judgement calls. Moreover, we're talking about the recommendation algorithm. The only neutral recommendation algorithm is a random number generator. Everything else is making a decision that video X is "better" than video Y for user Z. What it means to be "better" is difficult to analyse, but Google themselves must be constantly reviewing that question.