5 ms·

YouTube is as big of a purveyor of misinformation as Facebook. I just spent two hours yesterday dissecting all manner of coronavirus misinformation my mom learn

YouTube is as big of a purveyor of misinformation as Facebook. I just spent two hours yesterday dissecting all manner of coronavirus misinformation my mom learned from YouTube. The insidious aspect of it is that she never went looking for that - she started off watching legitimate sources like credible media outlets but autoplay took her further and further down the rabbit hole without even realizing she was no longer watching the same source. Outrageous, deliberately deceptive propaganda has weaponized the platform and Google is making billions shovelling that content to unsuspecting people. Everyone gets paid and society has to deal with the fallout of millions of misinformed citizens during a global pandemic. Respectfully, there's plenty to fix in your own house and you as a Googler have 1,000 times more of a voice to push for change than the average person.

jacquesm 6y ago
And it is nearly impossible to report those videos. Twitter is the only company so far that seems to have some kind of working moderation but even they could do much better.
Doctor_Fegg 6y ago
YouTube is a _much bigger_ purveyor of misinformation than Facebook IMX. When I scroll down my Facebook feed, its automated suggestions are "maybe you might know this friend-of-a-friend" or "maybe you might want to join this group about choral singing". When I watch a YouTube video, the automated "watch next" suggestions are "Watch Jacob Rees-Mogg DESTROY liberals with one sentence!".
kevincox 6y ago
This seems like a weird point when arguing against a closed platform. You are saying that it is hard to report misinformation. If we were using a distributed platform it would be impossible. So in this aspect centralized platforms are superior even if they are closed and not great in an absolute degree.
- seba_dos1 6y ago
  > If we were using a distributed platform it would be impossible. Distributed platforms don't prevent moderation; they let you choose your moderator (including no moderator at all).
  - kevincox 6y ago
    We could also use a distributed moderator on centralized platforms (in the browser at least, apps are harder) but there seems to be very little interest in doing this.

jacquesm 6y ago

And it is nearly impossible to report those videos. Twitter is the only company so far that seems to have some kind of working moderation but even they could do much better.

Doctor_Fegg 6y ago

YouTube is a _much bigger_ purveyor of misinformation than Facebook IMX. When I scroll down my Facebook feed, its automated suggestions are "maybe you might know this friend-of-a-friend" or "maybe you might want to join this group about choral singing". When I watch a YouTube video, the automated "watch next" suggestions are "Watch Jacob Rees-Mogg DESTROY liberals with one sentence!".

kevincox 6y ago

This seems like a weird point when arguing against a closed platform. You are saying that it is hard to report misinformation. If we were using a distributed platform it would be impossible. So in this aspect centralized platforms are superior even if they are closed and not great in an absolute degree.

seba_dos1 6y ago
> If we were using a distributed platform it would be impossible. Distributed platforms don't prevent moderation; they let you choose your moderator (including no moderator at all).
- kevincox 6y ago
  We could also use a distributed moderator on centralized platforms (in the browser at least, apps are harder) but there seems to be very little interest in doing this.