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from the nielson-smielson-ratings-mean-nothing-except-to-a-reality-tv-show-president dept.
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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 15 2019, @08:39PM (3 children)
Fuck all of this, can't somebody just host content who only cares about serving their users?
Liberty and free speech are insufficient defence against tyranny as Wiemar showed, but censorship isn't the answer, teaching critical thinking is. Just gotta be careful those critical thinking classes don't slowly become indoctrination classes by rejecting even the least-controversial political statements from them. ``Slavery is bad.'' should be considered unacceptable to be taught to children by the state, not because it's wrong, but because the area between it and full blown indoctrination is all smoothly darkening grey without any sharp divisions, and so you'll never muster enough people to stop a slide through it because nothing dramatic ever changes and there are no red-lines to be drawn anywhere except at the start.
(Score: 4, Informative) by NotSanguine on Friday March 15 2019, @09:01PM (1 child)
Yeah. It's called Diaspora [diasporafoundation.org].
It's open source and anyone can host a pod. It's a bit of a pain to set up, as the devs don't really seem interested in making it simple for Jenny Six Pack to set it up. A nice clean installer would go a long way, if...we can get symmetric bandwidth for consumers.
A pod could host just a small group of users and they can link up with whatever other pods they like.,
We'd need add in some grassroots work to get there though. Municipal FTTH enabling competition among ISPs making them stop port blocking and using abusive TOS. That will require cleaning out the sewers of filthy lucre from the big ISPs to local and state elected offcials.
I find the bigoted morons to be quite objectionable, but just because they're hateful pieces of shit, it doesn't mean they don't have free speech rights.
I keep waiting by the phone for Ajit to call and ask me what we should do, but it hasn't happened yet. Maybe I'll hold my breath.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 15 2019, @09:06PM
A p2p www replacement would be a helluva thing to see.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 15 2019, @09:29PM
Hey, AC! Prof. AC here! Bring your weak little mind into my classroom, and I will have you indoctrinated before you can recite π! First, I will display the instruments of indoctrination. Words, many words, words representing ideas, ideas that are the material of reasoning. Then I will require you to use them! This can be quite painful for those unused to thinking, so it may hurt at first. But as you progress, and become progressive, you will realize the errors of your past ignorance and conservative feefees. So, please! Step into my classroom, or that of any institution of higher learning! What, are ya scared, punk? Go ahead, make my millennial!