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YouTube constantly recommends me COVID-19 conspiracy videos since I dared to watch one that was popular here in Germany. Basically on every video I watch I have

by nisa 6y ago

YouTube constantly recommends me COVID-19 conspiracy videos since I dared to watch one that was popular here in Germany. Basically on every video I watch I have now german conspiracy videos as recommendations. I did neither like the video or did I subscribe the channel. It's beyond fucked up what Google is doing.

pxtail 6y ago
If you want to watch something one-off, some interesting tidbit outside of your curated feed then doing it in incognito mode is required, otherwise, as you noted you are doomed.
- crottypeter 6y ago
  If you find it here and delete it, I think it will cease to influence your recommended videos. https://www.youtube.com/feed/history https://www.youtube.com/feed/history
  - toofy 6y ago
    We shouldn’t have to jump through these kinds of hoops. Their recommendation engine is smart enough to discern between a one off video watch and a genuine interest, but youtube gets stuck on recommending conspiracyland videos. It’s at the point where I just ignore the entire section as if it were ads. I want a tool to work without having to sift through hundreds and hundreds of videos and try to guess which one caused the drift into crazy town.
  - kyteland 6y ago
    I have YouTube history turned off along with other publicly visible tracking and this kind of nonsense still happens to me. Their algo is working on more data than just what they make visible to the user. "The only winning move is not to play."
    - kevin_thibedeau 6y ago
      You have to evict all Google tracking cookies. Just disabling a few features won't cut it.
- koolba 6y ago
  Alternatively if you’re never logged in and reject all cookies, then you never have this issue at all. You also get to see just how low the lowest common denominator of society is for the default recommendations.
- nisa 6y ago
  Yup. It's just what do these recommendations do to the society? If you are suspectible to believe certain content for whatever reasons you are basically doomed as you get caged into an echo chamber that only validates the bullshit that is fed to you.
detaro 6y ago
If you're logged into YT, you can try deleting the video from your watch history.
- crispyambulance 6y ago
  Yeah, I've been doing this a lot lately. It's kind of disappointing how easily the recommendations shift once you click on a video that's sketchy. In my case, I once made the bad decision to watch a Jordan Peterson video. By itself it wasn't crazy, he was mildly provocative, a little paternalistic, not my cup of tea. But geez, the trash that then ended up appearing in the side bar after that was awful. I find that if I watch some "bad" videos, I have to spend a fair amount of time culling shit out of the subsequent recommendations. Another way to keep your feed from being polluted is simply to create "garbage user" that you toggle to if you want to view potentially garbage content. What I really wish youtube did was to allow users to filter out videos that contain keywords we choose, like twitter's somewhat effective "muted words" list.
  - jerf 6y ago
    "It's kind of disappointing how easily the recommendations shift once you click on a video that's sketchy." It isn't just "sketchy" videos. Someone linked me to a video of a dog being rescued, which I watched on my logged-in profile, and it was fine and all, but explaining to YouTube that that doesn't mean I'm interested in hearing about every dog ever rescued (since I didn't know about the 'delete from history' trick) has been a lot of "Never show me videos from this channel" button pushed.
  - delian66 6y ago
    So you effectively desire a way to build your own bubble, and cast it in stone, and also give even more information to Google (what you do not like) ???
perf1 6y ago
My feeling is they pushing the extra crazy ones though. Watching a clearly not well Person argue crazy theories isn't very convincing to healthy people anyway. On the other Hand people like Dr. Erickson get censored, because they simply dare to question the lock down and argue that there is no evidence supporting it's effectiveness in saving lives.
- mantap 6y ago
  It might have been correct to say there's no evidence in March (which is not a reason to not do something, we would still be in the Stone Age if every action we took required evidence.). There's plenty of evidence now as we have data for both going into and coming out of lockdown.
  - SpicyLemonZest 6y ago
    There's plenty of weird, contradictory evidence. Many places have come out of lockdown early, been told they're facing certain doom ("Georgia's Experiment in Human Sacrifice" [1]), and then been quietly forgotten when the predicted consequences don't come. It's hard to believe that lockdowns don't do anything at all, but I don't think anyone can honestly say we have definitive proof they were necessary. [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/04/why-georgia-reopening-coronavirus-pandemic/610882/ https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/04/why-georg...
    - akimball 6y ago
      I can. R0~5.7 has dropped below 1.0 in many mask-averse stay-at-home regions, which I consider compelling evidence of efficacy in an adverse environment, under common-sense priors informed by the medical literature.
      - SpicyLemonZest 6y ago
        "This number is below 1.0" is not, by itself, an argument that some particular social policy was necessary or effective. An argument that lockdowns were necessary would at a minimum need to address the questions of "would a less strict policy have sufficed" and "will the long-term outcome after lockdowns end be different".
101404 6y ago
That's why I never watch any video on logged in YouTube that may not interest me. Better right click and use anonymous window.
techntoke 6y ago
Can only listen/watch state-approved propaganda.
- nisa 6y ago
  There is a difference between genuine alternative views and just cultish conspiracy content created for clicks that defies any law of physics - is it reasonable to recommend a video from someone who argues the lockdown is not warranted? Why not. Is it reasonable to recommend someone who denies the existence of the virus and want's to sell you his quack treatments? I don't think so.
  - techntoke 6y ago
    > is it reasonable to recommend a video from someone who argues the lockdown is not warranted So you're saying we should censor the President of the United States from Twitter?
    - moftz 6y ago
      No, they are saying that having a discussion about how to deal with the pandemic is a little more above board than someone arguing that it's a 5G conspiracy.
      - spaginal 6y ago
        It was a little above board to argue that the Earth wasn’t the center of the universe at one time, and it was fervently argued, dissenters were dealt with harshly. Not saying there is a logical equivalency here, but this type of thinking is exactly why free speech is important, not why it’s dangerous.
    - Elzear 6y ago
      Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are removing some posts and videos from Bolsonaro.
    - DagAgren 6y ago
atom058 6y ago
There are plugins for Firefox to hide all recommendations and the start page of YouTube. Did this a couple of months back, and it has honestly made me happier and with a lot more control over watchtime etc. I now live in the Subscription section, and it's great!
nelaboras 6y ago
Wait until you get into the dystopian world of clips on YouTube targeted at children.

by nisa 6y ago

pxtail 6y ago

If you want to watch something one-off, some interesting tidbit outside of your curated feed then doing it in incognito mode is required, otherwise, as you noted you are doomed.

crottypeter 6y ago
If you find it here and delete it, I think it will cease to influence your recommended videos. https://www.youtube.com/feed/history https://www.youtube.com/feed/history
- toofy 6y ago
  We shouldn’t have to jump through these kinds of hoops. Their recommendation engine is smart enough to discern between a one off video watch and a genuine interest, but youtube gets stuck on recommending conspiracyland videos. It’s at the point where I just ignore the entire section as if it were ads. I want a tool to work without having to sift through hundreds and hundreds of videos and try to guess which one caused the drift into crazy town.
- kyteland 6y ago
  I have YouTube history turned off along with other publicly visible tracking and this kind of nonsense still happens to me. Their algo is working on more data than just what they make visible to the user. "The only winning move is not to play."
  - kevin_thibedeau 6y ago
    You have to evict all Google tracking cookies. Just disabling a few features won't cut it.
koolba 6y ago
Alternatively if you’re never logged in and reject all cookies, then you never have this issue at all. You also get to see just how low the lowest common denominator of society is for the default recommendations.
nisa 6y ago
Yup. It's just what do these recommendations do to the society? If you are suspectible to believe certain content for whatever reasons you are basically doomed as you get caged into an echo chamber that only validates the bullshit that is fed to you.

detaro 6y ago

If you're logged into YT, you can try deleting the video from your watch history.

crispyambulance 6y ago
Yeah, I've been doing this a lot lately. It's kind of disappointing how easily the recommendations shift once you click on a video that's sketchy. In my case, I once made the bad decision to watch a Jordan Peterson video. By itself it wasn't crazy, he was mildly provocative, a little paternalistic, not my cup of tea. But geez, the trash that then ended up appearing in the side bar after that was awful. I find that if I watch some "bad" videos, I have to spend a fair amount of time culling shit out of the subsequent recommendations. Another way to keep your feed from being polluted is simply to create "garbage user" that you toggle to if you want to view potentially garbage content. What I really wish youtube did was to allow users to filter out videos that contain keywords we choose, like twitter's somewhat effective "muted words" list.
- jerf 6y ago
  "It's kind of disappointing how easily the recommendations shift once you click on a video that's sketchy." It isn't just "sketchy" videos. Someone linked me to a video of a dog being rescued, which I watched on my logged-in profile, and it was fine and all, but explaining to YouTube that that doesn't mean I'm interested in hearing about every dog ever rescued (since I didn't know about the 'delete from history' trick) has been a lot of "Never show me videos from this channel" button pushed.
- delian66 6y ago
  So you effectively desire a way to build your own bubble, and cast it in stone, and also give even more information to Google (what you do not like) ???

perf1 6y ago

My feeling is they pushing the extra crazy ones though. Watching a clearly not well Person argue crazy theories isn't very convincing to healthy people anyway. On the other Hand people like Dr. Erickson get censored, because they simply dare to question the lock down and argue that there is no evidence supporting it's effectiveness in saving lives.

mantap 6y ago
It might have been correct to say there's no evidence in March (which is not a reason to not do something, we would still be in the Stone Age if every action we took required evidence.). There's plenty of evidence now as we have data for both going into and coming out of lockdown.
- SpicyLemonZest 6y ago
  There's plenty of weird, contradictory evidence. Many places have come out of lockdown early, been told they're facing certain doom ("Georgia's Experiment in Human Sacrifice" [1]), and then been quietly forgotten when the predicted consequences don't come. It's hard to believe that lockdowns don't do anything at all, but I don't think anyone can honestly say we have definitive proof they were necessary. [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/04/why-georgia-reopening-coronavirus-pandemic/610882/ https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/04/why-georg...
  - akimball 6y ago
    I can. R0~5.7 has dropped below 1.0 in many mask-averse stay-at-home regions, which I consider compelling evidence of efficacy in an adverse environment, under common-sense priors informed by the medical literature.
    - SpicyLemonZest 6y ago
      "This number is below 1.0" is not, by itself, an argument that some particular social policy was necessary or effective. An argument that lockdowns were necessary would at a minimum need to address the questions of "would a less strict policy have sufficed" and "will the long-term outcome after lockdowns end be different".

101404 6y ago

That's why I never watch any video on logged in YouTube that may not interest me. Better right click and use anonymous window.

techntoke 6y ago

Can only listen/watch state-approved propaganda.

nisa 6y ago
There is a difference between genuine alternative views and just cultish conspiracy content created for clicks that defies any law of physics - is it reasonable to recommend a video from someone who argues the lockdown is not warranted? Why not. Is it reasonable to recommend someone who denies the existence of the virus and want's to sell you his quack treatments? I don't think so.
- techntoke 6y ago
  > is it reasonable to recommend a video from someone who argues the lockdown is not warranted So you're saying we should censor the President of the United States from Twitter?
  - moftz 6y ago
    No, they are saying that having a discussion about how to deal with the pandemic is a little more above board than someone arguing that it's a 5G conspiracy.
    - spaginal 6y ago
      It was a little above board to argue that the Earth wasn’t the center of the universe at one time, and it was fervently argued, dissenters were dealt with harshly. Not saying there is a logical equivalency here, but this type of thinking is exactly why free speech is important, not why it’s dangerous.
  - Elzear 6y ago
    Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are removing some posts and videos from Bolsonaro.
  - DagAgren 6y ago

atom058 6y ago

There are plugins for Firefox to hide all recommendations and the start page of YouTube. Did this a couple of months back, and it has honestly made me happier and with a lot more control over watchtime etc. I now live in the Subscription section, and it's great!

nelaboras 6y ago

Wait until you get into the dystopian world of clips on YouTube targeted at children.