Very, Very Few People Are Falling Down the YouTube Rabbit Hole | The site’s crackdown on radicalization seems to have worked. But the world will never know what was happening before that::The site’s crackdown on radicalization seems to have worked. But the world will never know what was happening before that.

  • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    Weird. Youtube keeps recommending right wing videos even though I’ve purged them from my watch history and always selected Not Interested. It got to the point that I installed a 3rd party channel blocker.

    I don’t even watch too many left leaning political videos and even those are just tangentially political.

    • nutsack@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      i think if you like economics or fast cars you will also get radical right wing talk videos. if you like guns it’s even worse.

      • Edgelord_Of_Tomorrow@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        Oh, you like WW2 documentaries about how liberal democracy crushed fascism strategically, industrially, scientifically and morally?

        Well you might enjoy these videos made by actual Nazis complaining about gender neutral bathrooms!

      • ShittyRedditWasBetter@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        Nah. Cars or money has nothing to do with it. I’ve never once gotten any political bullshit and those two topics are 60% of what I watch.

        • nutsack@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          i made a fresh google account specifically to watch daily streams from one stocks channel (the guy is a liberal) and i got cars, guns, right wing politics in the feed.

          my general use account suggestion feed is mostly camera gear, leftist video essays and debate bro drama.

    • Kuya@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      I’ve been watching tutorials on jump ropes and kickboxing. I do watch YouTube shorts, but lately I’m being shown Andrew Tate stuff. I didn’t skip it quick enough, now 10% of the things I see are right leaning bot created contents. Slowly gun related, self defense, and Minecraft are taking over my YouTube shorts.

      • DreadPirateShawn@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        2 years ago

        If you don’t already, you can view your watch history and delete things.

        I do that with anything not music related, and it keeps my recommendations extremely clean.

    • spacebirb@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      I know everyone likes to be conspiracy on this but it’s really just trying to get your attention any way possible. There’s more right wing popular political videos, so the algorithm is more likely to suggest them. These videos also get lots of views so again, more likely to be suggested.

      Just ignore them and watch what you like

      • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        I’ve already said I installed a channel blocker to deal with the problem, but it’s still annoying that a computer has me in their database as liking right wing shit. If it was limited to just youtube recommendations, it would be nothing, but we’re on a slow burn to a dystopian hell. Google has no reason not to use their personality profile of me elsewhere.

        I made this comment elsewhere, but I have a very liberal friend who’s German, likes German food, and is into wwii era history. Facebook was suggesting neo-nazi groups to him.

        I watch a little flashgitz and now I’m being recommended FreedomToons. I get that’s some people that like flashgitz are going to be terrible, but I shouldn’t have to click Not Interested more then once.

    • Brokkr@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Indicating “not interested” shows engagement on your part. Therefore the algorithm provides you with more content like that so that you will engage more.

      You can try blocking the channel, which has mixed results for the same reason, or closing youtube and staying away from it for a few hours on that account.

      • jrburkh@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        I don’t know if this is accurate or not, but it’s the most nonsensical thing I’ve heard in a while. If engaging with something to say, “I don’t want to see this,” results in more of that content - the user will eventually leave the platform. I’m having this concern right now with my Google feed. I keep clicking not interested, yet continue getting similar content. Consequently, I’m increasingly leaning toward disabling the functionality because I’m tired of fucking seeing shit I don’t care to see. Getting angry just thinking about it.

        • Brokkr@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          I can only offer my own experience as evidence, but this is what I was advised to do (stop engaging by not selecting anything) and it worked. Prior to that I kept getting tons of stuff that I didn’t want to see, but it stopped within a few days once I stopped engaging with it. And I agree, it is infuriating.

          Because I got this advice from someone else, I guess it has worked for others too.

      • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        If I click Not Interested increases the likely hood of getting more of the same, then all the more reason to run ad blockers.

        The Channel Blocker is a 3rd party tool. It just hides the channel from view. Google shouldn’t know I’m doing it.