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It's a consequence of the algorithm optimizing for engagement. YT obviously wants people to stay for as long as possible, to interact, write comments, upvote/do

It's a consequence of the algorithm optimizing for engagement. YT obviously wants people to stay for as long as possible, to interact, write comments, upvote/downvote and follow the chain of recommended videos. The longer they stay on YT and the more content the consume, the more ads YT can show and the more money they make. Anti-woke/alt-right type content is provocative, controversial and makes people engage with. Either because they want to enthusiastically join in or because they want to dunk on it for how ridiculous it is. And the people who are into it are generally really into it, so they'll keep watching hour after hour of it. YT doesn't care, as long as they get as many people watching videos and looking at ads as they possibly can.

skrebbel 5y ago
> And the people who are into it are generally really into it, so they'll keep watching hour after hour of it. Maybe that's the effect and not the cause.
- KozmoNau7 5y ago
  I see it as a self-sustaining loop at this point. At some point the flames were lit and fanned, and now they've taken on a life of their own.
  - guerrilla 5y ago
    It'd make a good The Onion headline "AI Accidentally Resurrects Fascism."
  - astrange 5y ago
    This supposedly won't happen anymore because YouTube changed the recommendation algorithm a year or two ago to not show hardcore politics as a suggestion for everything. Personally I find it easy to dismiss bad suggestions by looking at animal videos or vtubers, those reliably displace everything else. And that everything else was just strange Minecraft roleplays for small children, not racism lately.
ergot_vacation 5y ago
It's important to note however that alt-right content is just one particular example. Often people encounter this algorithmic behavior and ascribe certain motives to Youtube etc. And while that probably IS happening to some degree, it's also true, and probably more common, that the system is just showing you more of what it thinks you will like. There are plenty of stories of this happening in a more innocuous (but still obnoxious) way: click one car repair video, everything is car repair videos. Click one clip from an old animated show for nostalgia, EVERYTHING is now clips from old 90s shows. And to counter all this, often the system is actually surprisingly insightful in digging up obscure crap from god knows where that's really neat, and right up your alley, that you never would have seen otherwise. And then it goes back to filling your whole front page with Simpsons clips.

skrebbel 5y ago

> And the people who are into it are generally really into it, so they'll keep watching hour after hour of it. Maybe that's the effect and not the cause.

KozmoNau7 5y ago
I see it as a self-sustaining loop at this point. At some point the flames were lit and fanned, and now they've taken on a life of their own.
- guerrilla 5y ago
  It'd make a good The Onion headline "AI Accidentally Resurrects Fascism."
- astrange 5y ago
  This supposedly won't happen anymore because YouTube changed the recommendation algorithm a year or two ago to not show hardcore politics as a suggestion for everything. Personally I find it easy to dismiss bad suggestions by looking at animal videos or vtubers, those reliably displace everything else. And that everything else was just strange Minecraft roleplays for small children, not racism lately.

ergot_vacation 5y ago

It's important to note however that alt-right content is just one particular example. Often people encounter this algorithmic behavior and ascribe certain motives to Youtube etc. And while that probably IS happening to some degree, it's also true, and probably more common, that the system is just showing you more of what it thinks you will like. There are plenty of stories of this happening in a more innocuous (but still obnoxious) way: click one car repair video, everything is car repair videos. Click one clip from an old animated show for nostalgia, EVERYTHING is now clips from old 90s shows. And to counter all this, often the system is actually surprisingly insightful in digging up obscure crap from god knows where that's really neat, and right up your alley, that you never would have seen otherwise. And then it goes back to filling your whole front page with Simpsons clips.