"You like a particular animal? (Otters), there is a person in Japan dedicated to his otter and makes frequent high-quality videos about it." Ah, so you've fall

"You like a particular animal? (Otters), there is a person in Japan dedicated to his otter and makes frequent high-quality videos about it." Ah, so you've fallen down the Aty rabbit-hole as well eh? Stuff like that makes me wonder though: everyone has this assumption that their experience on the web, and Youtube especially, is highly specific to them and what they watch, ie the "Filter Bubbles" concept. And yet over the past couple years, on and offline, I keep hearing that other people are ending up on the same videos and channels I am. Aty is a good example: everyone seems to have seen a HUGE surge in cute animal videos being recommended over the past few months. It seems highly likely that Youtube isn't as organic as it seems, and that those running it are deliberately tilting the recommendation algo in favor of certain kinds of videos at certain times. This has some pretty insidious implications, as it's a kind of influence so subtle as to be almost imperceptible.