4 ms·

YouTube loves recommending conservative vids regardless of your beliefs

6 points by bubblehack3r 4y ago

christmm 4y ago
BMc2020 4y ago
I watched one Jordn Pterson video. I had to reset my history to get them to stop showing up on my home page. Not interested doesnt' work, don't recommend channel doesn't work (there are too many jp channels).
- senttoschool 4y ago
  Same experience. I watched one Jordan Pterson Youtube Shorts, now at least 20% of my Shorts are Jordan Peterson/conservative. I can't be the only one who thinks Youtube Shorts algorithm is incredibly dangerous. It's the ultimate echo chamber. Even if I have some conservative views and agree with some of Jordan Pterson's takes, I still find it insanely dangerous to society. Too much content of left/right can make people more extreme in their views - especially if the content algorithms optimize for more and more extreme views. Not enough has been said about Youtube Shorts' algorithm. Also, does TikTok have this issue? Or are TikTok videos on the more casual/fun side?
DarkWiiPlayer 4y ago
Taking off my paranoid "youtube hates my side" hat for a moment, the only mechanism by which I can imagine a neutral algorithm would end up displaying this sort of behaviour would be if it learned that users consuming conservative media are more likely to be pulled into a rabbit hole, or that conservative videos are more likely to pull users into a rabbit hole (or, of course, a combination of the two). Having watched a good amount of videos from both political sides, this doesn't seem the least bit surprising.
- Mountain_Skies 4y ago
  Or people of the opposite ideology love viewing rage porn to get their fix of righteous indignation. This creates a link between videos that align with their preferred ideology and those of the opposite viewpoint that gets recommended to others with similar views.
  - DarkWiiPlayer 4y ago
    Dunno. I'm of said opposite ideology and whenever I mention how I watch anything conservative, I almost always get a surprised response like "why would you watch that crap?" So at least from my personal filter bubble, it doesn't seem like there's too much of a tendency to rage-watch conservative content just to hate on it. And while I don't think conservatives spend that much time hate-watching leaft-leaning content either, they definitely do a fair amount of hate-raiding that should make an algorithm think that "conservative video about X" makes people also enjoy "video about X".

6 points by bubblehack3r 4y ago

BMc2020 4y ago

I watched one Jordn Pterson video. I had to reset my history to get them to stop showing up on my home page. Not interested doesnt' work, don't recommend channel doesn't work (there are too many jp channels).

senttoschool 4y ago
Same experience. I watched one Jordan Pterson Youtube Shorts, now at least 20% of my Shorts are Jordan Peterson/conservative. I can't be the only one who thinks Youtube Shorts algorithm is incredibly dangerous. It's the ultimate echo chamber. Even if I have some conservative views and agree with some of Jordan Pterson's takes, I still find it insanely dangerous to society. Too much content of left/right can make people more extreme in their views - especially if the content algorithms optimize for more and more extreme views. Not enough has been said about Youtube Shorts' algorithm. Also, does TikTok have this issue? Or are TikTok videos on the more casual/fun side?

DarkWiiPlayer 4y ago

Taking off my paranoid "youtube hates my side" hat for a moment, the only mechanism by which I can imagine a neutral algorithm would end up displaying this sort of behaviour would be if it learned that users consuming conservative media are more likely to be pulled into a rabbit hole, or that conservative videos are more likely to pull users into a rabbit hole (or, of course, a combination of the two). Having watched a good amount of videos from both political sides, this doesn't seem the least bit surprising.

Mountain_Skies 4y ago
Or people of the opposite ideology love viewing rage porn to get their fix of righteous indignation. This creates a link between videos that align with their preferred ideology and those of the opposite viewpoint that gets recommended to others with similar views.
- DarkWiiPlayer 4y ago
  Dunno. I'm of said opposite ideology and whenever I mention how I watch anything conservative, I almost always get a surprised response like "why would you watch that crap?" So at least from my personal filter bubble, it doesn't seem like there's too much of a tendency to rage-watch conservative content just to hate on it. And while I don't think conservatives spend that much time hate-watching leaft-leaning content either, they definitely do a fair amount of hate-raiding that should make an algorithm think that "conservative video about X" makes people also enjoy "video about X".