3d ago

YouTube's algorithm is more and more disgustingly reactionary.

I use YouTube without an account most of the time either through a browser (incognito) or NewPipe or PipePipe (Android), which means that the algorithm doesn't adapt to me.

So, every time I see a video, I know that the recommends are unadulterated algorithmic rage. I may be watching a gardening video, there will be some "Women are Evil" type of video, or "random guy talks about why [thing that women do] is wrong, bad and immoral." I am even seeing a comeback of those "sjw cringe compilation" videos - what's this, 2016???

There are also A LOT, and I mean, a fuckton lot, of trad Catholic content being pushed. Mind you, I even set my YouTube to different countries and languages, and it's being spilled that way too.

Fucking nightmare.

I don't want to end it in a low note, so I will also acknowledge that there's quite a bit of left, openly socialist, communist content, too. 10 years ago there was none of that, the right could roam free (I even identified as one, lmao). Contradictions of capitalism, I guess.

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It's getting really bad in my opinion.
I use ublock and other widgets to give a me a "clean" slate every time I go to YouTube. The first things you see are all the "high engagement" (Of course not high-quality") stuff. YouTube's algorithm (and most other ones I assume) push this stuff in front of you because it fuckin' hates you and think its userbase are nothing but braindead zombies. They know people will "engage" with it so they shove in the front.
They think the average user is stupid and puts stupid things in front of them. It's almost out of a mid 90's sci-fi movie, but these MEGACORPS really do whatever the market responds to with zero thought of anything other than ad-revenue and time on platform. It's almost boring how plain and straightforward the reason is.
Modern "platform services" paradigms really do feed off the rot they create. I hate it so much, and my tech background tells me they are cooking up new ways to make it 420^69% worse.
- It used to be low quality, high engagement stuff; now it's low quality, high engagement, ragebait, bigoted stuff. In my opinion, nowadays is even worse than the 2016 "anti-sjw" era because these groups mastered algorithmic manipulation and developed their pseudoscience even more (redpill, incel things, pseudo philosophy) as a justification for their world-view and there's an up-tick of traditionalist lifestyles. Like, Catholics used to be chill, but on the internet, the ones that exist are imperial zealots (for those who don't know about this phenomenon: I'm not being metaphorical).
  I have had reactionary content when I was watching videos on how to take notes on a software. The fucking youtuber opened his note as a fleeting example and the first thing that appears on his screen is some text on how feminism is bullshit and some weird pseudoscientific pseudophilosophical stuff on "female nature". That wasn't the first one. I discovered a niche that day: religious devouts that specialise in a certain type of software and workflow.
- What I've noticed lately is a lot of rage comments in news stories. It'll always be something like:
  "Illegal migrant kills woman in car accident" with 90% of the comments calling for the electric chair. And most of these comments are from decade-old youtube accounts for what it's worth.

Meanwhile, reddit just showed me a colorized version of a Goebbels speec. No commentary. No context. Just updated nazi propaganda

The algorithm still adapts to you a bit thanks to googles absolutely disgusting practices like ip tracking, device identifier tracking, and other methods of fingerprinting (which is probably why you still got leftist content)
This is what makes it truly insidious. You reset it a bit because they see you as a potential new user. From their perspective: did someone move into your house? Did you give a family member your old device? Etc
I work in mental health and the amount of people I’ve seen that have had their families completely divided by this shit over the past 10 years is disgraceful and disgusting, especially when you consider the above. They prey on you giving your old ipad to your mom or your kid to send them down the red pill hellhole and don’t give a shit that itll eventually cause a major rift in your family that is potentially irreconcilable. It gets them ad impressions.

It's pretty much a given that if you listen to any podcasts, podcast clips, or comedy clips it will push you into the Joe Rogan pipeline. If you watch any streamers of anything, it will push you into political streamers and then to the guy who looks like an Edvard Munch painting and destiny, H3.
On the other hand, the algorithm is also bad for everything else. I watch one craft video and suddenly it's all striver maker small business etsy shit. The algo has no chill, it's 0-100 instantly.

I do this too and it's distressing seeing the consent building machine at work. In my local context it offers a lot of alt right, male rightwinger and war hawk content by clearly well funded but not mainstream ghouls. All male panels and also lots of religious and conspiracy stuff. No left wing content here as far as I've seen.
These come up no matter what sort of gardening or houseplant care video I am watching, it seems to push the reactionary stuff everywhere if using it anonymously.

YouTube is full of interesting content, but you have to search it like with a laser. Suggested content is crap and repetitive.
- My issue is it over-corrects whenever I watch something new or fall asleep with autoplay or something. Suddenly it thinks that new thing is my only interest in life.
  
  It's even worse when it over-corrects to the opposite, like, I'm watching some lecture on human rights and the algo throws at me right-wing extremist content against that. It's a step away from enlightened centrism.
  
  It's always hilarious when I put on some kind of "10 hour music mix" to have something playing in the background while I do household chores or something, and then the next time I want to find something to watch I now have nothing but a cumulative 6000 hours of various music mixes in my recommendations.
  It's the same absurdity of buying an appliance online, and having the website say "Our records show that you are starting a refrigerator collection. Would you like to buy 7 more?"
  
  Earlier this week I fell asleep to “Top 10 impossible to reach places on Google earth” and woke up in the middle of the night to some person streaming (and screaming at) clash of clans
- True. But I worry a lot about those who don't know about this, in particular younger and older people. Many people are not sufficiently "tech literate" (so to speak). Or, they may acknowledge the existence of the algorithm but would refuse to accept that their content is controlled. In my experience, some even get angry when I even suggest that, specially right-wingers who believe they've found "the truth."
  The right knows about the algorithmic push and uses that aggressively. I curated a good bubble for myself, I remember the content I like and want, but, sometimes, when I slip out of this bubble, it's truly a nightmare.

have to constantly block channels from suggestions.
- YouTube's natural block doesn't work for me. On the TV, it's even worse, it's the same as doing nothing. I use a browser extension so the channel is blocked completely (BlockTube). I have a separate browser/profile for this website, wtf. On Android, it doesn't matter because I use another app.

Brother, it’s been like this for eons, did you glance over all the real crime analytics and Indians shitting in the street videos?

Blocktube addon for firefox makes youtube so much better. I got it last year (maybe the year before) to block all the "middle aged man rages out at disney movie for little girls" content, but obviously it's also good for blocking everything else you don't like on there.
I have blocked 464 channels, and found more channels I actually want to watch because I've cleared out the trash.
- Yah I've been using it forever. I do wish I could get the algorithm to suggest shorter 5~10 minute videos, though. Too many video essay channels are on my feed, but I suspect that's because shorter content had moved to Instagram and TikTok.
  
  Change playback speed

Am I mistaking it for Zucc and facebook, but didn't youtube also say that with Trump winning they were welcoming back shit like fake news and racism on their platform?
- Fake news never went away. The New York Crimes still posting articles about Palestine being a jungle of wasps that needs to be burned down

it just feeds me news about china from mostly pro china sources and ads for iqiyi and viki now and you know what, im okay with that

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