SoylentNews

YouTube Recommendations for 'Alt-Right' Videos have Dropped Dramatically, Study Shows

posted by Snow on Friday March 15 2019, @06:14PM   
from the nielson-smielson-ratings-mean-nothing-except-to-a-reality-tv-show-president dept.

aristarchus writes:

YouTube Recommendations for 'Alt-Right' Videos have Dropped Dramatically, Study Shows:

Google has made "major changes" to its recommendations system on YouTube that have reduced the amount of "alt-right" videos recommended to users, according to a study led by Nicolas Suzor, an associate professor at Queensland University of Technology.

During the first two weeks of February, alt-right videos appeared in YouTube's "Up Next" recommendations sidebar 7.8 percent of the time (roughly one in 13). From Feb. 15 onward, that number dropped to 0.4 percent (roughly one in 250).

Suzor's study took random samples of 3.6 million videos, and used 81 channels listed on a recent study by Rebecca Lewis [.pdf] as a starting point. That list includes voices like Richard Spencer, an American white supremacist, but also includes more mainstream voices like Joe Rogan, who does not self-identify as alt-right but often plays host to more extremist voices on his podcast (including alt-right figures such as Alex Jones).

The drop appears significant, but it's difficult to figure precisely how that drop occurred. We don't know if YouTube is targeting 'alt-right' videos specifically or if the drop off is part of broader changes to YouTube's recommendation system.

---

Original Submission

• part of a campaign? part of a campaign? (Score: 4, Interesting) by ilsa on Friday March 15 2019, @06:21PM (3 children)

  by ilsa (6082) on Friday March 15 2019, @06:21PM (#814930)

  Didn't they announce that they were going to be making a bunch of sweeping changes to narrow the viewership of alt-fact videos like conspiracies, anti-vax, extremism, etc?

  Seems to logical to me that alt-right videos would get caught up in that net.

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+2
  Interesting=1, Informative=1, Total=2
  Extra 'Interesting' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		4

• one of these is not like the other (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 15 2019, @06:31PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 15 2019, @06:31PM (#814943)

  alt-fact videos like conspiracies, anti-vax, extremism

  Utility functions aren't facts, and can be neither correct nor incorrect.

  Parent

• Re:part of a campaign? (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 15 2019, @06:32PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 15 2019, @06:32PM (#814945)

  Yeah, Youtube stopped recommending conspiracy videos like chemtrails, gay frogs, flat earth, anti-wax, Sandy Hook, 9/11 and so on. Guys like Alex Jones are less likely to be recommended and if you have people like that on a podcast...

  Parent

• Re:part of a campaign? (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 15 2019, @07:25PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 15 2019, @07:25PM (#814986)

  Beauty is they already have those papers, about conspiracies, anti-vax etc, lined up for the next conference.

  Parent