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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.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Friday March 15 2019, @07:44PM (7 children)
Uh-huh. So if you want to look up somebody's number in the phone book, but can't because the publisher of the phone book thinks they're naughty, then that's perfectly OK because, hey, that person you want to call does still have a phone number. I mean, so what if nobody knows what it is, and there's no way to find out? Hey, if you don't like it, then you can go and build your own phone system, right?
How about the UPS refuses to deliver packages to your house, because you said something critical of the UPS. That's OK, right, because you could just go out and create your own multi-billion dollar delivery service overnight?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by NotSanguine on Friday March 15 2019, @08:06PM (3 children)
Phone Book? What?
I know you live in Crooklyn. I live in the city. so I know that NY Telephone/Nynex/Bell Atlantic/Verizon/whatever those scumbags are calling themselves these days stopped distributing those more than ten years ago.
I just looked myself up on whitepages.com and I'm there. My address too. But if you want my phone number it's $5. So what was it that your were trying to say?
As for UPS, would it surprise you to know that back in the 1980s, FedEx wouldn't deliver to two places in the continental US? The Mojave Desert and Bed-Stuy. True story.
And no, I wouldn't need to start my own global delivery company -- I could use FedEx or DHL or USPS or any of dozens of smaller logistics companies.
And you can use Vimeo, Dailymotion, Wistia, Vidyard and others. Or host the content yourself.
With Google/YouTube you forget who the customer is. It ain't you. It's the advertisers. And if they don't want their ads shown next to Richard Spencer, Alex Jones, Milo or Jordan Peterson, Youtube will hop to it because they're the customer and the Golden Rule [quoteinvestigator.com] applies in spades.
It's not even about ideology like you were trying to make it out to be. It's about the almighty dollar. Don't like it, boycott those who advertise on Youtube.
I don't know who that is since I never see ads, but you're a bright guy. I'm sure you can figure it out.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 16 2019, @02:45PM
https://www.whitepages.com/name/Notsanguine [whitepages.com]
Liar. You are not there at all.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 16 2019, @08:13PM (1 child)
I didn't know that you were a hardcore free marketeer anarcho-capitalist. Or are you just against regulations in this one area?
You know that hosting the same content yourself isn't viable for the vast, vast majority of people. As for the others, once they got big enough, they would simply adopt the exact same restrictions, or be dropped by payment processors and web hosts, effectively limiting their size.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Saturday March 16 2019, @11:50PM
I'm not any of those things. I'm a hardcore free speech guy.
I disagree that it isn't viable, unless your goal is to make money from advertising or subscriptions or selling your content.
If you're interested in expressing yourself rather than *making money*, there are all sorts of ways to get the word out.
I'd also point out that the issues with asymmetric bandwidth and abusive ISP TOS harm free speech and aggressive regulation needs to be applied. Not likely with the cable industry's lapdog in charge of the FCC, eh?
But there's a limited amount that the FCC could do anyway. Strong municipal FTTH is definitely the way to go, but local and state legislatures around the US have been bought and paid for to keep competition out.
tl;dr: Free speech good. Making money from your speech is not a requirement of free speech.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday March 15 2019, @11:15PM (2 children)
But that's not at all what's happening. Like your phone number, the content is still there if you go looking for it, they're just no longer recommending it. It's more like if the phone book publisher refused to sell you a front-page ad, or UPS refused to hand out fliers advertising your company to their other customers.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Phoenix666 on Saturday March 16 2019, @03:53AM (1 child)
Follow this behavior to its logical conclusion. Substitute other groups and beliefs for the one you don't like and see if it still feels hunky dory to you.
Let's imagine YouTube/Google and their ilk doing this to people who eat meat, because meat is bad for you and bad for the environment. Are you still OK with them not "recommending" related content?
Let's imagine they do this to LGBT people, because homosexuality is immoral and likely to spread STDs (or whatever justification you like). Are you still OK with it?
And so on.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Saturday March 16 2019, @04:46AM
If you don't like how Google does business, don't use their services.
Or do you believe that we need a 28th amendment that extends the 14th amendment to private organizations?
I'm not making fun, I just want to understand what you think an appropriate "remedy" might be.
I'd also point out that it's simple enough to host your own content -- the "value" for most Youtubers is the *revenue* they get for ads displayed next to their content -- without having to set up interfaces from your own infrastructure to google's advertising platform.
As I said earler, remember that for google you are the *product*, not the customer.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr