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Source: Technology Review
A new study [PDF] suggests what we've suspected for years is right: YouTube is a pipeline for extremism and hate.
How do we know that? More than 330,000 videos on nearly 350 YouTube channels were analyzed and manually classified according to a system designed by the Anti-Defamation League. They were labeled as either media (or what we think of as factual news), "alt-lite" intellectual dark web, or alt-right.
[...] The alt-right is what's traditionally associated with white supremacy, pushing for a white ethnostate. Those who affiliate with the "intellectual dark web" justify white supremacy on the basis of eugenics and "race science." Members of the alt-lite purport to not support white supremacy, though they believe in conspiracy theories about "replacement" by minority groups.
[...] The study's authors hypothesized that the alt-lite and intellectual dark web often serve as a gateway to more extreme, far-right ideologies. So they tested that by tracing the authors of 72 million comments on about two million videos between May and July of last year. The results were worrying. More than 26% of people who commented on alt-lite videos tended to drift over to alt-right videos and subsequently comment there.
[...] The team, from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, also found evidence that the overlap between alt-righters and others who dabble in intellectual dark web and alt-lite material is growing. The authors estimate that about 60,000 people who commented on alt-lite or intellectual dark web content got exposed to alt-right videos over a period of about 18 months. The work was presented at the 2020 Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency in Barcelona this week.
In a statement, YouTube said it's working through these issues: "Over the past few years ... We changed our search and discovery algorithms to ensure more authoritative content is surfaced and labeled prominently in search results and recommendations and begun reducing recommendations of borderline content and videos that could misinform users in harmful ways."
A spokesperson added that YouTube disputes the methodology and that it doesn't take into account more recent updates to its hate speech policy or recommendations. "We strongly disagree with the methodology, data and, most importantly, the conclusions made in this new research," the spokesperson said.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 01 2020, @10:12AM (9 children)
You are correct of course, but consider the general reactions to the following statements :
We have bought 50,000 acres of land and we are going to set up a community exclusively for People of Color.
We have bought 50,000 acres of land and we are going to set up a community exclusively for Women.
We have bought 50,000 acres of land and we are going to set up a community exclusively for Jews.
We have bought 50,000 acres of land and we are going to set up a community exclusively for LGBT.
We have bought 50,000 acres of land and we are going to set up a community exclusively for Native Amaricans.
We have bought 50,000 acres of land and we are going to set up a community exclusively for Whites.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday February 01 2020, @02:58PM (8 children)
Pretty damn stupid ideas all of them, IMO. Then again, not only did I spend the first 27 years of my life in New York City, I spent them in places where white people were such complete minorities that most of the signs in my hometown, for example, were in Chinese. So there's never been any "keep the races separate!" impulse in me. If anything, my diet and culture are about as Chinese as my girlfriend's, who is herself ethnically Chinese but comes from Malaysia. So the idea of making these closed-off enclaves just strikes me as stupid and self-defeating.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 01 2020, @04:18PM (7 children)
I meant the general reaction of society, not yours in particular.
The first five might get some disapproval, but it would be shouted down as racist/sexist/bigoted. The most common reaction would be "well, they bought the land they can do what they want with it."
The last would provoke demonstrations, legal action, and violence.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 01 2020, @07:34PM
Pure speculation, and you're free to file your own discrimination lawsuit if you can come up with a real world example.
I'm pretty sure there are such places, there have been cults, militias, and I think it is safe to say the Mormons probably have some giant secluded enclave.
Dumb harder, we're all just waiting to leap to your defense as soon as you have a valid complaint. If you're just mad st people yelling at you for your racism then I'll have to tell you to follow the advice you give when liberals complain about racist morons, stop whining you snowflake little bitch.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday February 01 2020, @11:07PM (5 children)
Do you understand that there is no need for a whites-only enclave for the same reason there is no need for a Straight Pride parade or a White History Month? Hint: it's because *everywhere in the US is the white enclave.* Everyone else is outgroup by default. I personally find the idea of the first five loathsome in its stupidity and self-destructiveness, and would happily go on record saying as much.
And why? Mainly because trying to circle the wagons doesn't work when you're by definition wagon-encircled to begin with. It perpetrates the divisions and hatreds and grudges, too. It's dumb to concentrate people who have very real fears of persecution in one place, *because that makes it easier to find them and make them suffer.* And finally, it triggers a lot more bigots to demand integration than to try and wall off :)
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 02 2020, @02:25AM (4 children)
So there is only one group who cannot have a pride march. Cannot have their own enclave. Will never have a history month. Equality for all except Them.
Can you see why some of Them might think that is a bit discriminatory?
Next time you hear a statement that includes any of (White, Black, Colored, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Straight, LGBT) try say that statement out loud substituting every other word in that list, and see which ones provoke outrage. If a statement is wrong with any of those words in it then it is wrong with all of them.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday February 02 2020, @02:42AM (2 children)
You completely missed the point. And I half-wonder if it wasn't on purpose, if you are truly that thick.
What angle do I need to turn this at so you understand it? *The dominant group does not need this sort of display.* Why would they? It's a given, for them. Is this seriously difficult to understand? I don't demand a White History Month because every frickin' month is White History Month in the USA. It's superfluous.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 02 2020, @04:49AM (1 child)
And you fail to understand that everyone is an individual. To you, everyone is part of a group and must be treated as the average of that group.
You put some poor, blue-collar worker supporting a family on $30K in the same class as a CEO taking home $30M just because of skin color.
That worker doesn't see very much of that "privilege" you keep going on about, and he's getting angry about the fact that he is expected to pay for it.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday February 02 2020, @07:02AM
That's not how privilege works, dipshit. I make 20 a year gross, not even that 30 you mention, and I still have white privilege. All privilege means is "would things suck even harder if I were $ETHNICITY/$GENDER/$SEX/$WHATEVER?" Sorry if this is hard for you to understand.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 04 2020, @09:37AM
Fuck Whitey! There, I said it, you racist scumbag! But do you know, there is no "white"? White is only the combination of all colors, what we call diversity. So, yes, we need to kill off all who call themselves "white" as if it were something real, destroy them during their "pride" marches, exterminate them in their "race exclusive enclaves", and cut their bodies into quarters and drag them down the streets as a lesson to anyone even thinking about being so stupid ever again. Do you want me to explain this to you again, since, being "white", you are not too bright, and unlikely to understand the first time? Just ask, Whitey!