12 ms·

YouTube could take its engagement algorithm down a notch, thus reducing radicalization by many orders of magnitude. Otherwise, it's just playing whack-a-mole.

prawn 6y ago
They could at least shortlist quality content and make only that content eligible for algorithmic recommendations, rather than seemingly all sorts of scraps like now.
- aeternum 6y ago
  How do you quantify quality without manually choosing only a few mainstream content producers?
  - satya71 6y ago
    Just show people what I watch! Joking aside, I think they have some sharp minds that can tackle this.
  - prawn 6y ago
    I'm sure they can choose more than a few. Hire to scale that up. Probably wouldn't need to make it at the video level - flag the better creators first. For subjects without recommendations, let people search to find their next video.
Osiris 6y ago
It's very easy to find articles that find that suggestion/engagement algorithms for YouTube, and presumably Facebook and others, pushes people toward more and more radical (extreme) content. https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/10419/9404 https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/10419/... https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/algorithms-take-over-youtube-s-recommendations-highlight-human-problem-n867596 https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/algorithms-take-ov... https://theconversation.com/youtubes-algorithms-might-radicalise-people-but-the-real-problem-is-weve-no-idea-how-they-work-129955 https://theconversation.com/youtubes-algorithms-might-radica...
- im3w1l 6y ago
  Quoting your third link > Does YouTube create extremists? A recent study caused arguments among scientists by arguing that the algorithms that power the site don’t help radicalise people by recommending ever more extreme videos, as has been suggested in recent years. why are you misrepresenting your sources?
  - LarvaFX 6y ago
    > It’s hard to argue that YouTube doesn’t play a role in radicalisation. Why aren't you reading the article? So many questions, so few answers.
  - Osiris 6y ago
    > pushes people toward more and more radical (extreme) content. content was the key word there.
bobbygoodlatte 6y ago
I wish this was the top upvoted comment. It's the root cause behind so much of all this. Engagement algorithms are driving extremism. Outrageous, inflammatory, even seditious political speech is more "engaging" than reasonable speech. So until we can reform engagement algorithms, we will indeed have to keep playing whac-a-mole. With uglier and uglier moles.

prawn 6y ago

They could at least shortlist quality content and make only that content eligible for algorithmic recommendations, rather than seemingly all sorts of scraps like now.

aeternum 6y ago
How do you quantify quality without manually choosing only a few mainstream content producers?
- satya71 6y ago
  Just show people what I watch! Joking aside, I think they have some sharp minds that can tackle this.
- prawn 6y ago
  I'm sure they can choose more than a few. Hire to scale that up. Probably wouldn't need to make it at the video level - flag the better creators first. For subjects without recommendations, let people search to find their next video.

Osiris 6y ago

It's very easy to find articles that find that suggestion/engagement algorithms for YouTube, and presumably Facebook and others, pushes people toward more and more radical (extreme) content. https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/10419/9404 https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/10419/... https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/algorithms-take-over-youtube-s-recommendations-highlight-human-problem-n867596 https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/algorithms-take-ov... https://theconversation.com/youtubes-algorithms-might-radicalise-people-but-the-real-problem-is-weve-no-idea-how-they-work-129955 https://theconversation.com/youtubes-algorithms-might-radica...

im3w1l 6y ago
Quoting your third link > Does YouTube create extremists? A recent study caused arguments among scientists by arguing that the algorithms that power the site don’t help radicalise people by recommending ever more extreme videos, as has been suggested in recent years. why are you misrepresenting your sources?
- LarvaFX 6y ago
  > It’s hard to argue that YouTube doesn’t play a role in radicalisation. Why aren't you reading the article? So many questions, so few answers.
- Osiris 6y ago
  > pushes people toward more and more radical (extreme) content. content was the key word there.

bobbygoodlatte 6y ago

I wish this was the top upvoted comment. It's the root cause behind so much of all this. Engagement algorithms are driving extremism. Outrageous, inflammatory, even seditious political speech is more "engaging" than reasonable speech. So until we can reform engagement algorithms, we will indeed have to keep playing whac-a-mole. With uglier and uglier moles.