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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, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @07:45PM (3 children)
This thread is chock full of moron whining about racists being prevented from gaming the system to promote their propaganda. The typical excuses of free speech and some kind of martyrdom for the general idea of publishers moderating content on their own platform.
Paired with all the racism, it really just validates the article. The white supremacists have worked hard at spreading their message, making videos that would be recommended based on youtube's algorithms. Now they're being shut down, and instead of building their own video hosting site we get crying about oppression and free speech.
https://news.ku.edu/2017/05/01/research-shows-prejudice-not-principle-often-underpins-free-speech-defense-racist [ku.edu]
Yup, QED this whole comment section.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @08:48PM (1 child)
When did Putin reactivate you?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @09:52PM
From the sounds I heard over the phone I think it was when he and Trump were spitroasting you.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 01 2020, @12:45PM
I'm sorry when they are down ticking people like tim pool and saragon and pegging them as 'alt right supremacists' I am left scratching my head. Those dudes are clearly left or center/left. But they call it like they see it which I can at least respect. They did not toe the line 'orange man bad' and got punished for it.
When I see Julian Assange vilified for doing what he has always done I am left scratching my head. He was the darling of the left when he splatted an egg on the Bush admin. But now is scum because he showed that Hillary and the DNC were no better and in many ways much much worse. You can read it for yourself in her 'yoga emails'.
The real deal is they put in charge of youtube a woman who should not be there. Not because she is a woman. But because she has shown herself to be a corrupt asshole. That 'gamergate' thing she was at the epicenter of it selling her body to get good reviews. Then gaslighting with it was woman empowerment. Which is just hot garbage. The other side of that is just as bad trying to make it about some macho shit and how 'women are out to get them'. No it is just a vengeful jerk who was given too much power.
Youtube wanted to be the face of the internet. Well now they have it. Warts and all. But somehow they think they can control it. By saying it radicalizes people. Whatever that even means. Youtube was good for about 1-2 years right at first. Then the mob showed up and it is eternal September there. When a fascist socialist says they can pass more rules to make the world better run the other way. They have a long history of making it much much worse. You can read all about in the history books.
instead of building their own video hosting site
They are doing just that. They are cutting out youtube while they are at it. Someone will fill in that void. If you make youtube a place of disneyworld. Well the people who do not like it will build their own. The next time they are aiming for decentralized too. IPFS and tor and systems like them will probably play a big part of that. There will be no central authority. If you think youtube is crazy wait until they standup the second version. It is not clear which of the new platforms will win. But two of them are looking likely.