How to de-radicalize my mom's youtube algorithm?

At this point I would set up a new account for her - I’ve found Youtube’s algorithm to be very… persistent.
- Unfortunately, it's linked to the account she uses for her job.
  
  You can make "brand accounts" on YouTube that are a completely different profile from the default account. She probably won't notice if you make one and switch her to it.
  You'll probably want to spend some time using it for yourself secretly to curate the kind of non-radical content she'll want to see, and also set an identical profile picture on it so she doesn't notice. I would spend at least a week "breaking it in."
  But once you've done that, you can probably switch to the brand account without logging her out of her Google account.
  
  Delete watch history, find and watch nice channels and her other interests, log in to the account on a spare browser on your own phone periodically to make sure there's no repeat of what happened.
- This is the way. Make sure to give it a very similar name and the same avatar and she won't notice

I'm a bit disturbed how people's beliefs are literally shaped by an algorithm. Now I'm scared to watch Youtube because I might be inadvertently watching propaganda.
- I think this is what bothers me most about the "I have nothing to hide" crowd. With enough data about you, it's a lot easier to manipulate you.
  
  It's even worse than "a lot easier". Ever since the advances in ML went public, with things like Midjourney and ChatGPT, I've realized that the ML models are way way better at doing their thing that I've though.
  Midjourney model's purpose is so receive text, and give out an picture. And it's really good at that, even though the dataset wasn't really that large. Same with ChatGPT.
  Now, Meta has (EDIT: just a speculation, but I'm 95% sure they do) a model which receives all data they have about the user (which is A LOT), and returns what post to show to him and in what order, to maximize his time on Facebook. And it was trained for years on a live dataset of 3 billion people interacting daily with the site. That's a wet dream for any ML model. Imagine what it would be capable of even if it was only as good as ChatGPT at doing it's task - and it had uncomparably better dataset and learning opportunities.
  I'm really worried for the future in this regard, because it's only a matter of time when someone with power decides that the model should not only keep people on the platform, but also to make them vote for X. And there is nothing you can do to defend against it, other than never interacting with anything with curated content, such as Google search, YT or anything Meta - because even if you know that there's a model trying to manipulate with you, the model knows - there's a lot of people like that. And he's already learning and trying how to manipulate even with people like that. After all, it has 3 billion people as test subjects.
  That's why I'm extremely focused on privacy and about my data - not that I have something to hide, but I take a really really great issue with someone using such data to train models like that.
- My personal opinion is that it's one of the first large cases of misalignment in ML models. I'm 90% certain that Google and other platforms have been for years already using ML models design for user history and data they have about him as an input, and what videos should they offer to him as an ouput, with the goal to maximize the time he spends watching videos (or on Facebook, etc).
  And the models eventually found out that if you radicalize someone, isolate them into a conspiracy that will make him an outsider or a nutjob, and then provide a safe space and an echo-chamber on the platform, be it both facebook or youtube, the will eventually start spending most of the time there.
  I think this subject was touched-upon in the Social Dillema movie, but given what is happening in the world and how it seems that the conspiracies and desinformations are getting more and more common and people more radicalized, I'm almost certain that the algorithms are to blame.
  
  If youtube "Algorithm" is optimizing for watchtime then the most optimal solution is to make people addicted to youtube.
  The most scary thing I think is to optimize the reward is not to recommend a good video but to reprogram a human to watch as much as possible
  
  100% they're using ML, and 100% it found a strategy they didn't anticipate
  The scariest part of it, though, is their willingness to continue using it despite the obvious consequences.
  I think misalignment is not only likely to happen (for an eventual AGI), but likely to be embraced by the entities deploying them because the consequences may not impact them. Misalignment is relative
  
  fuck, this is dark and almost awesome but not in a good way. I was thinking the fascist funnel was something of a deliberate thing, but may be these engagement algorithms have more to do with it than large shadow actors putting the funnels into place. Then there's the folks who will create any sort of content to game the algorithm and you've got a perfect trifecta of radicalization
- You watch this one thing out of curiosity, morbid curiosity, or by accident, and at the slightest poke the goddamned mindless algorithm starts throwing this shit at you.
  The algorithm is "weaponized" for who screams the loudest, and I truly believe it started due to myopic incompetence/greed, not political malice. Which doesn't make it any better, as people don't know how to take care of themselves from this bombardment, but the corporations like to pretend that they people can, so they wash their hands for as long as they are able.
  Then on top of this, the algorithm has been further weaponized by even more malicious actors who have figured out how to game the system.
  That's how toxic meatheads like infowars and joe rogan get a huge bullhorn that reaches millions. "Huh... DMT experiences... sounds interesting", the format is entertaining... and before you know it, you are listening to anti-vax and qanon excrement, your mind starts to normalize the most outlandish things.
  EDIT: a word, for clarity
  
  Whenever I end up watching something from a bad channel I always delete it from my watch history, in case that affects my front page too.
- My normal YT algorithm was ok, but shorts tries to pull me to the alt-right.
  I had to block many channels to get a sane shorts algorythm.
  "Do not recommend channel" really helps
  
  It really does help. I've been heavily policing my Youtube feed for years and I can easily see when they make big changes to the algorithm because it tries to force feed me polarizing or lowest common denominator content. Shorts are incredibly quick to smother mebin rage bait and if you so much as linger on one of those videos too long, you're getting a cascade of alt-right bullshit shortly after.
  
  Using Piped/Invidious/NewPipe/insert your preferred alternative frontend or patched client here (Youtube legal threats are empty, these are still operational) helps even more to show you only the content you have opted in to.
- Reason and critical thinking is all the more important in this day and age. It's just no longer taught in schools. Some simple key skills like noticing fallacies or analogous reasoning, and you will find that your view on life is far more grounded and harder to shift
  
  I think it's worth pointing out "no longer" is not a fair assessment since this is regularly an issue with older Americans.
  I'm inclined to believe it was never taught in schools, and is probably more likely to be a subject teachers are increasingly likely to want to teach (i.e. if politics didn't enter the classroom it would already be being taugh, and might be in some districts).
  The older generations were given catered news their entire lives, only in the last few decades have they had to face a ton of potentially insidious information. The younger generations have had to grow up with it.
  A good example is that old people regularly click malicious advertising, fall for scams, etc, they're generally not good at applying critical thinking to a computer, where as younger people (typically though I hear this is regressing some with smartphones) know about this stuff and are used to validating their information (or at least have a better "feel" for what's fishy).
  
  Just be aware that we can ALL be manipulated, the only difference is the method. Right now, most manipulation is on a large scale. This means they focus on what works best for the masses. Unfortunately, modern advances in AI mean that automating custom manipulation is getting a lot easier. That brings us back into the firing line.
  I'm personally an Aspie with a scientific background. This makes me fairly immune to a lot of manipulation tactics in widespread use. My mind doesn't react how they expect, and so it doesn't achieve the intended result. I do know however, that my own pressure points are likely particularly vulnerable. I've not had the practice resisting having them pressed.
  A solid grounding gives you a good reference, but no more. As individuals, it is down to us to use that reference to resist undue manipulation.
  
  imagine if they taught critical media literacy in schools. of course that would only be critical media literacy with an american propaganda backdoor but still
  
  Texas basically banned critical thinking skills in the school system
- I mean, you probably are, especially if it's explicitly political. All I can recommend is CONSTANT VIGILANCE!
- YouTube's entire business is propaganda: Ads.
  
  What ad? Glances at uBlock Origin
  
  Lately the number of ads on YouTube has increased by an order of magnitude. What they managed to accomplish was driving me away.
- I watch a lot of history, science, philosophy, stand up, jam bands and happy uplifting content... I am very much so feeding my mind lots of goodness and love it...
- Just this week I stumbled across a new YT channel that seemed to talk about some really interesting science. Almost subscribed, but something seemed fishy. Went on the channel and saw the other videos, immediately got the hell out. Conspiracies and propaganda lurk everywhere and no one is save. Mind you, I'm about to get my bachelor's degree next year, meaning I have received proper scientific education. Yet I almost fell for it.
- At this point, any channel that I know is either bullshit or annoying af I just block. Out of sight out of mind.
  
  Same. I have ads blocked and open YouTube directly to my subbed channels only. Rarely open the home tab or check related videos because of the amount of click bait and bs.
- I find it interesting how some people have so vastly different experience with YouTube than me. I watch a ton of videos there, literally hours every single day and basically all my recommendations are about stuff I'm interested in. I even watch occasional political videos, gun videos and police bodycam videos but it's still not trying to force any radical stuff down my throat. Not even when I click that button which asks if I want to see content outside my typical feed.
  
  My youtube is usually ok but the other day I googled an art exhibition on loan from the Tate Gallery, and now youtube is trying to show me Andrew Tate.
  
  I watch a ton of videos there, literally hours every single day and basically all my recommendations are about stuff I'm interested in.
  The algorithm's goal is to get you addicted to Youtube. It has already succeeded. For the rest of us who watch one video a day, if at all, it employs more heavy-handed strategies.
  
  At one point I watched a few videos about marvel films and the negatives about them. One was about how captian marvel wasn't a good hero because she was basically invincible and all powerful etc etc. I started getting more and more suggestions about how bad the new strong female leads in modern films are. Then I started getting content about politically right leaning shit. It started really innocuously and it's hard to figure out if it's leading you a certain way until it gets further along. It really made me think when I'm watching content from new channels. Obviously I've blocked/purged all channels like that and my experience is fine now.
  
  The experience is different because it's not one algorithm for everyone.
  Demographics are targeted differently. If you actually get a real feed, it's only because no one has yet paid YouTube for guiding you towards their product.
  It would be an interesting experiment to set up two identical devices and then create different Google profiles for each just to watch the algorithm take them in different directions.
- I have to clear out my youtube recommendations about once a week... no matter how many times I take out or report all the right-wing garbage, you can bet everything that by the end of the week there will be a Jordan Peterson or PragerU video in there. How are people who aren't savvy to the right-wing's little "culture war" supposed to navigate this?
  
  You should use an extension like blocktube.
- The algorithm is a mind virus. The people who caught it are no different (to me) than zombies.
  They aren't the people you once knew. And honestly, they never will be again. (With very few exceptions thereby proving the rule)
- I don't understand how these people can endure enough ads to be lured in by qanon. The people of that generation generally don't know about decent adblockers.

the damage that corporate social media has inflicted on our social fabric and political discourse is beyond anything we could have imagined.
- This is true, but one could say the same about talk radio or television.
  
  Talk radio or television broadcasts the same stuff to everyone. It's damaging, absolutely. But social media literally tailors the shit to be exactly what will force someone farther down the rabbit hole. It's actively, aggressively damaging and sends people on a downward spiral way faster while preventing them from encountering diverse viewpoints.
  
  Yes, I agree - there have always been malevolent forces at work within the media - but before facebook started algorithmically whipping up old folks for clicks, cable TV news wasn't quite as savage. The early days of hate-talk radio was really just Limbaugh ranting into the AM ether. Now, it's saturated. Social media isn't the root cause of political hatred but it gave it a bullhorn and a leg up to apparent legitimacy.
- Agreed, Ted Kaczynski was right about technology evidently.
  
  Permanently Deleted
  
  He was pretty good at math too
- Populism and racism is as old as societies. Anciant Greece already had it. Rome fell to it. Christianism is born out of it.
  Funnily enough, people always complained about how bad their society was because of this new thing. Like 5 thousand years ago already. Probably earlier even.
  Which is not to say we shouldn't do anything about it. We definitely should. But common sense won't save us unfortunately.

In the google account privacy settings you can delete the watch and search history. You can also delete a service such as YouTube from the account, without deleting the account itself. This might help starting afresh.
- I was so weirded out when I found out that you can hear ALL of your "hey Google" recordings in these settings.
  
  Yeah, anything you send Google/Amazon/Facebook they will keep. I have been moving away from them. Protonmail for email, etc.

Log in as her on your device. Delete the history, turn off ad personalisation, unsubscribe and block dodgy stuff, like and subscribe healthier things, and this is the important part: keep coming back regularly to tell YouTube you don't like any suggested videos that are down the qanon path/remove dodgy watched videos from her history.
Also, subscribe and interact with things she'll like - cute pets, crafts, knitting, whatever she's likely to watch more of. You can't just block and report, you've gotta retrain the algorithm.
- Yeah, when you go on the feed make sure to click on the 3 dots for every recommended video and "Don't show content like this" and also "Block channel" because chances are, if they uploaded one of these stupid videos, their whole channel is full of them.
- Would it help to start liking/subscribing to videos that specifically debunk those kinds of conspiracy videos? Or, at the very least, demonstrate rational concepts and critical thinking?
  
  Probably not. This is an almost 70 year old who seems not to really think rationally in the first place. She's easily convinced by emotional misinformation.
  Probably just best to occupy her with harmless entertainment.
  
  We recommend her a youtube channel about linguistics and she didn't like it because the Phd in linguistics was saying that is ok for language to change. Unfortunately, it comes a time when people just want to see what already confirms their worldview, and anything that challenges that is taken as an offense.

Sorry to hear about you mom and good on you for trying to steer her away from the crazy.
You can retrain YT's recommendations by going through the suggested videos, and clicking the '...' menu on each bad one to show this menu:
(no slight against Stan, he's just what popped up)
click the Don't recommend channel or Not interested buttons. Do this as many times as you can. You might also want to try subscribing/watching a bunch of wholesome ones that your mum might be interested in (hobbies, crafts, travel, history, etc) to push the recommendations in a direction that will meet her interests.
Edit: mention subscribing to interesting, good videos, not just watching.
- You might also want to try watching a bunch of wholesome ones that your mum might be interested (hobbies, crafts, travel, history, etc) in to push the recommendations in a direction that will meet her interests.
  This is a very important part of the solution here. The algorithm adapts to new videos very quickly, so watching some things you know she's into will definitely change the recommended videos pretty quickly!
  
  OP can make sure this continues by logging into youtube on private mode/non chrome web browser/revanced YT app using their login and effectively remotely monitor the algorithm.
  (A non chrome browser that you don't use is best so that you keep your stuff seperate, otherwise google will assume your device is connected to the account which can be potentially messy in niche cases).

Delete all watched history. It will give her a whole new sets of videos. Like a new algorithms.
Where does she watch he YouTube videos? If it's a computer and you're a little techie, switch to Firefox then change the user agent to Nintendo Switch. I find that YouTube serve less crazy videos for Nintendo Switch.
- This never worked for me. BUT WHAT FIXED IT WAS LISTENING TO SCREAMO METAL. APPARENTLY THE. YOURUBE KNEW I WAS A LEFTIST then. Weird but I've been free ever since
  
  This comment made me laugh so hard and I don't know why... I love it!
- change the user agent to Nintendo Switch
  You mad genius, you

Here is what you can do: make a bet with her on things that she think is going to happen in a certain timeframe, tell her if she's right, then it should be easy money. I don't like gambling, I just find it easier to convince people they might be wrong when they have to put something at stake.
A lot of these crazy YouTube cult channels have gotten fairly insidious, because they will at first lure you in with cooking, travel, and credit card tips, then they will direct you to their affiliated Qanon style channels. You have to watch out for those too.
- they will at first lure you in with cooking, travel, and credit card tips
  Holy crap. I had no idea. We've heard of a slippery slope, but this is a slippery sheer vertical cliff.
  Like that toxic meathead rogan luring the curious in with DMT stories and the like, and this sounds like that particular spore has burst and spread.
  
  Rogan did not invent this, this is the modern version of Scientology's free e-meter reading, and historical cults have always done similar things for recruitment. While you shouldn't be paranoid and suspicious of everyone, but you should know that these things exists and watch out for them.
- it took a total of one hour of youtube autoplay for me to go from "here's how to can your garden veggies at home" to "the (((globalists))) want to outbreed white people and force them into extinction"
- My sister always mocked her and starts to fight her about how she has always been wrong before and she just get defensive and has not worked so far, except for further damage their relationship.
  
  See if you can convince her to write down her predictions in a calendar, like "by this date X will have happened".
  You can tell her that she can use that to prove to her doubters that she was right and she called it months ago, and that people should listen to her. If somehow she's wrong, it can be a way to show that all the things that freaked her out months ago never happened and she isn't even thinking about them anymore because she's freaked out about the latest issue.
  
  No, don't mock her, that's the last thing you should do, don't be emotional, be calm and ask her if she want to take the easy money if she is so sure about these things, it has to be provable, objective events where there is no wiggle room, like the natives with arrows for example.
  Cults will always want to isolate their perspective members from their current support groups. Don't let them do that past the point of no return.

I think it's sad how so many of the comments are sharing strategies about how to game the Youtube algorithm, instead of suggesting ways to avoid interacting with the algorithm at all, and learning to curate content on your own.
The algorithm doesn't actually care that it's promoting right-wing or crazy conspiracy content, it promotes whatever that keeps people's eyeballs on Youtube. The fact is that this will always be the most enraging content. Using "not interested" and "block this channel" buttons doesn't make the algorithm stop trying to advertise this content, you're teaching it to improve its strategy to manipulate you!
The long-term strategy is to get people away from engagement algorithms. Introduce OP's mother to a patched Youtube client that blocks ads and algorithmic feeds (Revanced has this). "Youtube with no ads!" is an easy way to convince non-technical people. Help her subscribe to safe channels and monitor what she watches.
- Not everyone is willing to switch platforms that easily. You can't always be idealistic.
  
  That's why I suggested Revanced with "disable recommendations" patches. It's still Youtube and there is no new platform to learn.
- Also consider - don't sign in to YouTube. Set uBlock, and Sponsorblock, too - so when youtube does get watched, the ads and promotions get skipped.
  Everyone here is missing the point - by signing in to YouTube, you give Google more power to dominate your life.
  With a simple inoreader extension in Firefox, you can visit a youtube/youtuber/video page and subscribe the feed.
  Search interesting channels and save them to Feedly, or Inoreader.
  Pin those to Firefox, so that your feeds are always refreshed and visible.
- How does revanced remove the algorithm stuff? I have been using it for a long time but never saw this feature
  
  I don't know for sure, because I actually like my algorithmic recommendations on YT (I've done a good job of carefully curating it to show me a good stuff). But if I had to guess, I'd say it removes "related videos" from its watch page, and removes the "home" tab. So it will show search results and subscriptions, but not the general algorithmic content.
  
  There should be a patch for it that hides the "recommended" feed in the homepage. I'm not certain because I never use Youtube with an account or the official website/app, so I don't get targeted recommendations.
- How do you disable algorithmic feeds in revanced? This sounds perfect..
- Ooh, you can even set the app to open automatically to the subscription feed rather than the algo driven home. The app does probably need somebody knowledgable about using the app patcher every half-dozen months to update it though.

In addition to everything everyone here said I want to add this; don't underestimate the value in adding new benin topics to her feel. Does she like cooking, gardening, diy, art content? Find a playlist from a creator and let it auto play. The algorithm will pick it up and start to recommend that creator and others like it. You just need to "confuse" the algorithm so it starts to cater to different interests. I wish there was a way to block or mute entire subjects on their. We need to protect our parents from this mess.

Do the block and uninterested stuff but also clear her history and then search for videos you want her to watch. Cover all your bases. You can also try looking up debunking and deprogramming videos that are specifically aimed at fighting the misinformation and brainwashing.
- This is a really good idea - so she begins to see the videos of people who were once where she is now.

My mother‘s partner had some small success, on the one hand doing what you do already, unsubscribe from bad stuff and subscribe to some other stuff she might enjoy (nature channels, religious stuff which isn‘t so toxic, arts and crafts..) and also blocked some tabloid news on the router. On the other hand, he tried getting her outside more, they go on long hikes now and travel around a lot, plus he helped her find some hobbies (the arts and crafts one) and sits with her sometimes showing lots of interest and positive affirmations when she does that. Since religion is so important to her they also often go to (a not so toxic or cultish) church and church events and the choir and so on.
She‘s still into it to an extent, anti-vax will probably never change since she can’t trust doctors and hates needles and she still votes accordingly (which is far right in my country) too which is unfortunate, but she‘s calmed down a lot over it and isn‘t quite so radical and full of fear all the time.
Edit: oh and myself, I found out about a book "How to have impossible conversations" and the topics in there can be weird, but it helped me in staying somewhat calm when confronted with outlandish beliefs and not reinforce, though who knows how much that helps if anything (I think her partner contributed a LOT more than me).
- Reading this makes me realize I'm not alone as I thought. My mother too has gone completely out of control in the last 3 years with every sort of plot theory (freemasonry, 5 families ruling the world, radical anti-vax, this Pope is not the real Pope, EU is to blame for anything, etc.). I manage to "agree to disagree" most of the time but it's though sometimes... People, no matter their degree of education, love simple explanations to complex problems and an external scapegoat for their failures. These contents will always have an appeal.
  
  Yeah you are not alone at all, there is an entire subreddit for this r/qanoncasualties and while my mother doesn‘t know it, a lot of this stuff comes from this Q thing. Like why else would a person like her in Austria care so much about Trump or Hillary Clinton or a guy like George Soros? Also a lot of it is thinly veiled borderline Nazi stuff (it‘s always the jews or other races or minority groups at fault), which is the next thing, she says she hates Nazis and yet they got her to vote far right and support all sorts of agendas. There is some mental trick happening there where "the left is the actual Nazis".
  Well she was always a bit weird with religion, aliens, wonder cures and other conspiracy stuff, but it really got turned towards these political aims in the last years. It feels malicious and it was distressing to me, though I‘m somewhat at peace with it now, the world is a crazy place and out of my control, I just try to do the best with what I can affect.
- By now it is beyond apparent that corporations cannot be relied upon to regulate themselves. In the mindless dynamic they have set in motion, the mindless endgame is to keep us in a perpetual state of anguish.
  How this type of vulgarly cynical content is not considered obscene and banned, is a failure of the highest magnitude.

I've found that if I remove things from my history, it stops suggesting related content, hopefully that helps.
- That's what I do, but it requires doing it frequently, as for OP they should start fresh with a new profile which can be under the same login via channels.
  
  Once you have it dialed you can disable your search/watch history.
  Some of my personal hobbies/interests tend to appeal to the right wing tinfoil hat fringe (outdoorsy hunting/camping/survivalist stuff, ham radio, a casual interest in guns, and I have a small libertarian streak although I'd generally call myself a liberal these days, etc.) So left unchecked the algorithm will show me some crazy stuff. It used to happen to me occasionally that while I was googling around for info and reviews on some piece of kit I'd be clicking into different forums to see people discussing them then I'd realize at some point that I was on the stormfront forums (and immediately nope the fuck out of there) usually it would be a totally normal conversation of people discussing a ham radio or gun or whatever until halfway down the page someone would drop a comment like "in my opinion, every nationalist should own one of these"
  So my YouTube history has been paused for years, probably since well before trump and q anon and everything really took off, and frankly I've been happy with my recommendations. I haven't looked too much into how those recommendations are determined now but it seems to mostly be based on what channels I'm subscribed to.
  There is definitely more going into it though, because I get a lot of recommendations about the breed of dog I have despite not subscribing to any dog-related channels, so it's definitely pulling from the rest of my Google search history or social media or something, or secretly keeping track of my history a little in the background somewhere, so you'll probably have to do some pruning in the rest of her online accounts too.
  
  Some things just completely skew your home page with just a single viewing. I am very careful with my watch history, only watching one off stuff from other sites in a private window. That seems to work well.
- That was something I tried tried today, deleted the YouTube history and paused it. It didn't had immediately effects, but hope it helps on something.
  
  Another thing that I'd consider doing is to unpause her history a bit, put YouTube to play a few videos about other stuff (topics that she'd watch, based on her tastes, minus the q-anon junk), then pause it again. This might tell youtube "I want to watch this".
  Side note: that's how mainstream media is making every single one of us flat and single-minded. So you watched X? Onwards you shall see X nonstop.
  
  you can also go here: https://myactivity.google.com/product/youtube and set it to auto delete
  
  I would not pause the history, i would populate the history with balanced contents and then (if you feel like your mother will actively look for radicalized content) pause it.
  So that the algorithm will have something"balanced" to work on.
  Re not acting immediately: per GDPR they can't keep deleted data on your activity more than a few months (and probably they do before the deadline)
  
  Delete also the search history. After that, search non toxic topics, like live shows of her favourite artists, recipes, nature documentaries...
  
  Permanently Deleted

youtube has a delete option that will wipe the recorded trend. then just watch a couple of videos and subscribe to some healthy stuff.
- Very cool, had no idea it was that simple
  
  https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/55759?hl=en#zippy=%2Cdelete-your-channel-permanently
  when you delete your account it also deletes your history. I assume she isn't a content creator so the rest won't be concerning. The next time you login using your gmail it will just be like when you first logged into youtube.

Oof that’s hard!
You may want to try the following though to clear the algorithm up
Clear her YouTube watch history: This will reset the algorithm, getting rid of a lot of the data it uses to make recommendations. You can do this by going to “History” on the left menu, then clicking on “Clear All Watch History”.
Clear her YouTube search history: This is also part of the data YouTube uses for recommendations. You can do this from the same “History” page, by clicking “Clear All Search History”.
Change her ‘Ad personalization’ settings: This is found in her Google account settings. Turning off ad personalization will limit how much YouTube’s algorithms can target her based on her data.
Introduce diverse content: Once the histories are cleared, start watching a variety of non-political, non-conspiracy content that she might enjoy, like cooking shows, travel vlogs, or nature documentaries. This will help teach the algorithm new patterns.
Dislike, not just ignore, unwanted videos: If a video that isn’t to her taste pops up, make sure to click ‘dislike’. This will tell the algorithm not to recommend similar content in the future.
Manually curate her subscriptions: Unsubscribe from the channels she’s not interested in, and find some new ones that she might like. This directly influences what content YouTube will recommend.

As you plan on messing with her feed, I'd like to warn you that a sudden change in her recommendations could seem to her like the whole internet got censored and she can't see the truth anymore. She would be cut off from a sense of community and a sense of having special inside knowledge, and that may make things worse rather than better.
My non-proffessional prediction is that she would get bored with nothing to worry about and start actively seeking out bad news to worry over.
- I’d like to warn you that a sudden change in her recommendations could seem to her like the whole internet got censored and she can’t see the truth anymore.
  This is exactly the response my neighbors have. "Things get censored, so that must mean that the gov must be hiding this info" It's truly insane to see this happen
- What you're describing is a cult or psychosis. Stopping it is a good thing, not something to be worried about.
  
  Well yeh but, the concern is unintended consequences which sounds entirely likely. It's kind of fucked up to even be considering doing this to an adult, entirely entitled to their own choice of viewing habits, without their knowledge and by surreptitious use of their account and it's only dubiously ethical because it's an act of kindness against machine generated manipulation of a far more insidious nature and for far less than altruistic reasons.
  You'd hardly want it to backfire after taking this step. By posing this question the OP obviously already considers the pseudo cult his Mum's getting sucked in to be a bad thing so it doesn't need further signalling but being sure to do it carefully with an eye on the actual effect is probably wise or the whole endeavour would be a waste and might push her further in to the waiting arms of lunatics and charlatans.
  
  Cold turkey isn't the best solution if you truly think that is where they're at for exactly the reason they described. How don't you get that?
  
  I agree that cult mindset or psychosis is what she has going on. But suddenly removing the source from her computer without her knowledge could backfire because she's already so invested.

You can manage all recommendations by going to account > Your data in YouTube
From there you can remove the watch history and search history or disable them entirely. It should make it a lot easier to reset the recommendations.
- I did that once, All it did was lock-in the algorithm to serve alt-right alpha-male misogynistic BS just because (guessing) google knows I have an odysee account, and it started out by catering to that demographic...
- This is the best and most actionable info here OP. From there can you install some parental software to block certain kinds of videos?

Go into the viewing history and wipe it. Then maybe view some more normal stuff to set it on a good track. That should give a good reset for her, though it wouldn't stop her from just looking it up again, of course.
- This is the right answer. Removing browsing history is an easy step with very big effect
- This. Watch the majority report lol
  
  Oh no! Sam Seder, what a fucking nightmare!
  And now the song will repeat in my head, forever.

if you have access to her computer instead of just her account you could try installing the extension channel block (firefox | chrome). with that you can both block individual channels so that videos from these channels will NEVER EVER show up in sidebar recommendations, search results, subscription feeds, etc. you can also set up regex queries to block videos by title eg. the query "nuke*" will stop video recommendations if the title of the video contains "nuke, "nuclear", or any other word that starts with "nuke"

I curate my feed pretty often so I might be able to help.
The first, and easiest, thing to do is to tell Youtube you aren't interested in their recommendations. If you hover over the name of a video then three little dots will appear on the right side. Clicking them opens a menu that contains, among many, two options: Not Interested and Don't Recommend Channel. Don't Recommend Channel doesn't actually remove the channel from recommendations but it will discourage the algorithm from recommending it as often. Not Interested will also inform the algorithm that you're not interested, I think it discourages the entire topic but it's not clear to me.
You can also unsubscribe from channels that you don't want to see as often. Youtube will recommend you things that were watched by other people who are also subscribed to the same channels you're subscribed to. So if you subscribe to a channel that attracts viewers with unsavory video tastes then videos that are often watched by those viewers will get recommended to you. Unsubscribing will also reduce how often you get recommended videos by that content creator.
Finally, you should watch videos you want to watch. If you see something that you like then watch it! Give it a like and a comment and otherwise interact with the content. Youtube knows when you see a video and then go to the Channel's page and browse all their videos. They track that stuff. If you do things that Youtube likes then they will give you more videos like that because that's how Youtube monetizes you, the user.
To de-radicalize your mom's feed I would try to
Watch videos that you like on her feed. This introduces them to the algorithm.
Use Not Interested and Don't Recommend Channel to slowly phase out the old content.
Unsubscribe to some channels she doesn't watch a lot of so she won't notice.
- OP listen to this comment. YouTubes goal is to feed you as much related content to keep you on the site as long as possible. Radical content or otherwise, any engagement to them is positive. You can spend some time curating the feed so that the algorithm works in your favor and the algorithm will adjust very quickly to new interests.
- I can confirm that this works quite well. I use these tactics all the time on my parents' feed to keep them from watching too many "crap" news, pardon my french. There's a very notorious news channel in our country that insists on feeding bad (and only the bad) news - I often remove their channel from the suggested feed play videos of funny fails/wins, cute cats, daily dose of internet and other happy nonesense.
  Give us an update sometime @driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br , hope all goes well with your mom.

HEAVY use of "Don't Recommend Channel" is essential to make YouTube tolerable. Clobber all the garbage.
- Yeah "Not interested" doesn't do a damn thing.
  
  It's like a "don't recommend this specific video ... for a few months" button
- BlockTube extension is also a must. It will make sure a video or channel NEVER appears again, no matter what.

Delete her youtube history entirely. Rebuild the search algo from scratch.
- You can do this? I'm tempted to do it for myself.
  
  Yup pretty easy too. I just checked on my mobile app this is how you do it
  Click 'Library'
  On your History section, click 'view all'
  Then click the three dots upper right
  Click 'clear all watch history'
  You can also do this from the google history management page on the web but not sure the step tho.
  
  Yes. I’ve nuked my history once to start from a clean slate. Alternatively, you can also delete harmful videos from your history one by one, but that could take a while.

In googles settings you can turn off watch history and nuke whats there, which should affect recommendations to a degree. I recommend you export her youtube subscriptions to people she likes (that arent qanon), set up an account on an invidious instance, and import those subs. This has the benefit of no ads and no tracking/algorithm making. The recommendations can be turned off too I think. Freetube for desktop and newpipe for andrioid are great 3rd party youtube scrapers. The youtube subs can also be imported to a RSS feed client.
- If she watches on a laptop or PC you can change the icons to what she is used to using. Like if she uses Chrome browser you can switch Peertube ixon to a chrome icon so she click that one too.
  
  On mobile newpipe is a good option too

Make her a new account, pre-train it with some wholesome stuff and explicitly block some shit channels.

First unsub from worst channels and report a few of the worst channels in general feed with "Don't show me this anymore". Then go into actual Google profile settings, not just YouTube. Delete and Pause/Off Watch History and even web history. It will still eventually creep back up, but temp relief.
- You're doing the Lord's work 👌 thank you

I listen to podcasts that talk about conspiratorial thinking and they tend to lean on compassion for the person who is lost. I don't think that you can brow-beat someone into not believing this crap, but maybe you can reach across and persuade them over a lot of time. Here are two that might be useful (the first is on this topic specifically, the second is broader):
https://youarenotsosmart.com/transcript-qanon-and-conspiratorial-narratives/ https://www.qanonanonymous.com
I wish you luck and all the best. This stuff is awful.

Switch her to FreeTube on desktop. Can still subscribe to keep a list of channels she likes, but won't get the YouTube algorithm recommendations on the home page.
For mobile something like newpipe for the same algorithm removed experience.
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  It changes instances every time it loads from what I understand. Having it not change might help in that area.

This is a suggestion with questionable morality BUT a new account with reasonable subscriptions might be a good solution. That being said, if my child was trying to patronize me about my conspiracy theories, I wouldn't like it, and would probably flip if they try to change my accounts.
- Yeah the morality issue is the hard part for me... I've been entrusted by various people in the family to help them with their technology (and by virtue of that not mess with their technology in ways they wouldn't approve of), violating that trust to stop them from being exposed to manipulative content seems like doing the wrong thing for the right reasons.
  
  Really? That seems far-fetched. Various people in the family specifically want you not to mess with their technology? ??
  If the algorithm is causing somebody to become a danger to others and potentially themselves, I'd expect in their right state of mind, one would appreciate proactive intervention.
  eg. archive.is/https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/apr/12/fox-news-brain-meet-the-families-torn-apart-by-toxic-cable-news

I just want to share my sympathies on how hard it must be when she goes and listens to those assholes on YouTube and believes them but won't accept her family's help telling her what bullshit all that is.
I hope you get her out of that zone op.

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- Invidious is different enough that dummies will complain that "it's not youtube"
  Source: had my mom and ex-gf complain exactly that. "But it doesn't show ads" wasn't enough quality of life for them over the known UI.
  
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you can try selecting "don't recommend this channel" on some of the more radical ones!
- That means exactly the opposite for youtube. It will double-down on its "algo" smarts.
  
  Source that cuz it's interesting, please.
- "Report for misinformation -> don't recommend this channel" is my usual strategy, but they just keep going. I don't do that with the catholic ones, because they are not that bad, but I'm sure they are a window for the bad ones to enter.

Greasemonkey with scripts that block key words or channels. This is the only real option next to taking away YouTube from the old bat.

You can't "de-radicalize" your mom because your mom has never been "radicalized" in the first place - if she was, she'd be spray-painting ACAB on the walls and quoting Bakunin or Marx at everyone.
Your mom has been turned into a reactionary - pretty much the opposite of that which is radical. And since you have access to your mom's youtube account, it's radical content that is required to start levering open the cognitive dissonance that right-wing content attempts to paper over.
However, it can't just be any radical content - it has to be radical content that specifically addresses things that are relevant to your mom. I'll use my own mom as an example... she has always been angry about the fact that my (late) father essentially tossed away the family's nest-egg in his obsessive attempts to become a successful business owner - I showed her some videos explaining how this neolib cult of business-ownership was popularized by the likes of Reagan and Thatcher (which she had no difficulty believing because my dad was a rabid right-winger who constantly brought these two fuckheads up in conversation during the 80s) which led to a lot of good conversations.
Obviously, your mom will not be as receptive to new information as mine is - so you may have to be a bit sneakier about it. But I don't see too many other options for you at this point.
- Radicalization !== Radical Marxist. Don't forget radicalism the ideology!. But yes, definitions can change: etymolically and in modern language radicalism politically is to be pushing for a change at the root of something. I think it is pretty fair to say OPs mom could fit this. Radicalism does not have to be and often is not leftist.
  Furthermore, in my opinion, reactionary is not a descriptive word- it is wholely used as an insult. It doesn't describe an ideology, it is just a prejorative used to insult ideological opponents. You can again tell by the fact that nobody uninronically considers themselves a reactionary.
  
  radicalism politically is to be pushing for a change at the root of something
  You mean that thing right-wing ideology exists to prevent? There is no such thing as a "right-wing radical" - right-wing ideology exists to protect the status quo and destroy or co-opt that which advocates "change at the root..." it has no reason to exist otherwise.
  I think it is pretty fair to say OPs mom could fit this.
  The paranoid racism displayed by OP's mom isn't "radical" - it's bog-standard right-wing white supremacist colonialist paranoia.
  You can again tell by the fact that nobody uninronically considers themselves a reactionary.
  They also generally do not self-identify as fascists or white supremacists, and you can easily anger most right-wingers even by just calling them right-wingers - so your point is... what?

If she has no account maybe try to disable youtube from setting cookies. So shell start over every time.
- She probably uses the TV app and doesn't watch it on a PC

The videos you watch on Youtube influence the ones you're recommended. I once put in a couple of 8 hour cat videos for to entertain a feline friend while I was away, and for a while Youtube kept recommending them to me. I had convinced it that I was a cat.
Get her to watch other videos (or even watch them on her behalf using her account), and also mark the awful ones at Not Interested > I Don't Like This Video using the thumbnail menu. It'll take some concerted effort though.
- Also, even if you manage to get the recommendations out off of her front page generally, if one shows up and she clicks on it, it'll start recommending them again. Youtube's recommendation algorithm is really crappy, and assume you're all about the things you watch recently.

i'm really sorry to hear that you're going through a difficult time rn. it's a very frustrating situation to be in. i'm sending you a hug and good wishes.

Hey can you post an update at some point, I'm interested to see if you manage to lower the radicalising content.

It may help to not log on to YouTube at all. If she uses Google accounts, set YouTube to always open in a different container where you're not logged in. The recommendations are set by a single id in the cookies which can easily be reset.

I used to watch a lot of controversial/conspiracy/right-wing stuff because I wanted to keep tabs on their crazy. Eventually it all became way too toxic and bad for my mental health but I needed to fix my Youtube feed. There was lots of unsubscribing and channel blocking, but mostly watching of lots of trivial videos was what helped to clean it up.
I don't think downvoting helps, but upvoting does. The algorithm knows people will engage more with content that makes them angry/afraid ... don't let it know when you feel that way.
Maybe scroll through a lot of shorts and then like and subscribe to videos & channels that are less innocuous, or completely trivial (like cooking tips, makeup & fashion for older women, celebrity gossip entertainment, comedy, feel good compilations etc). If you haven't already, definitely subscribe to Daily Dose of Internet. Youtube also seems to like pushing Lo-fi, meditation, and binaural beats (especially at night) ... sub a few of those.
Block those channels who have Rogan or Tate or similar in their video titles. Unsub from the likes of Dr John Campbell & Russell Brand. If she likes news and current affairs, try to find world news channels that are more highly regarded but less likely to be "ultra left" channels that she would recognise from her anti-browsing. Channels like Reuters, AFP, or maybe news stations from other countries (like ABC news in Australia, or CBC and Global News in Canada). Block "Rebel News" and unsub from "News Nation", or anyone else that pushes clickbait headlines. Swap her subscription from "Sky News Australia" (block) to simply "Sky News" - The Australian one is made by NewsCorp (Murdoch) and targets the American right-wing audience, while the other is a legitimate UK news channel which is not owned by Murdoch - she wont notice the subtle difference in the logos, but the content will be dramatically different.
Also, I would recommend a channel called The Why Files ... he does videos on conspiracies, lays out all the conspiracy evidence, and then also lays out any debunking facts. He treats the subjects seriously, so watchers don't feel stupid for believing something, but then does a great job of presenting the debunking facts as well, so viewers get a really balanced presentation about controversial topics.
I hope this is helpful. Good luck.
P.S. If you haven't done so yet, I would recommend watching a documentary called "The Social Dilemma" if you are able to find a copy (it's on Netflix).

Kittens are good. Maybe some BBC stuff? Get her into the nature shows. Damn near anything on BBC Earth should be great for that.
Diy building stuff: Simone Goertz is awesome, as is Laura Kampf.
For some super chill diy, check out SteadyCraftin
ClickSpring builds super cool old shit and is just beautiful to watch.
Either The Action Lab or Steve Mould should work for understanding science.
For fun experiments and sciencey things, Mark Rober is entertaining.
Want something food related? I’ve heard good things about Tasting History (Max Miller), haven’t checked him out myself, though. Or James Hoffman does a great show all about coffee.
Does she knit or crochet? There are hundreds of channels about yarny things - Tiny Fiber Studios does stuff like that.
Or maybe she likes other things. Sashiko Story teaches the art of sashiko (Japanese embroidery). The Violet Unicorn teaches weaving.
How about music? Tim Reynolds is incredible, as is Marcin.
- Maybe some BBC stuff?
  Gardener's World, the way the show is presented is soothing yet fascinating at the same time. There are a lot of full episodes on YouTube, and it is healthy content for a 70-year old mind... or much younger, even.
  
  Just stay away from bbc news politics coverage of the uk, it's dogshit, almost as bad as the tabloids. world coverage and other fun stuff is fine.

Clearing youtube history and personal ads may help not sure though

Make a new account gor youtube. And take out the one she was using out of the app. ( if its just for loggin into the phone then take it out of the phone althogeter). But like someone said earlier, shes just gonna feel like its getting censored or bored and look for that stuff herself. So you better explain to her in a long talk how the internet media machine works, and how to distinguish facts from fiction. Whitch is gonna be a daunting task but somethimes it works. If she just got into watching youtube videos then its should be a little easyer to talk to her about it.

Replace her existing account with a new one. Make up some excuse. Use the don't recommend channel option when a bad recommendation comes up.

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Great advice in here. Now, how do I de-radicalize my mom? :(

You can go into the view history and remove all the bad videos.
My mom has a similar problem with animal videos. She likes watching farm videos where sometimes there's animals giving birth... And those videos completely ruin the algorithm. After that she only gets animals having sex, and the animal fighting and killing eachother.

If you're keeping the channel, the "Don't recommend this" method while also deleting watch history with controversial content would help. but honestly, closing the account and opening a new one with a fresh recommendation slate is the way.

It's not going to be easy. most likely she'll be exposed to this shit elsewhere too, not only on youtube. fully reset the browser in ANY case. delete history, cookies, everything.
besides that, I see multiple options. you can consider them all or in various combinations
completely block youtube (for example via hosts)
new account
unsubscribe from everything
reset/delete watch history
https://myadcenter.google.com/personalizationoff?hl=en
disable personalized adds
from there go to the "my activiy"
https://myactivity.google.com/page?page=my_ad_center_preferences&pli=1
delete all
enable restricted mode (essentially making it a kids account)
change location/region of the account
go here: https://myaccount.google.com/u/0/yourdata/youtube?hl=en&pli=1
disable watch history
disable search history
- Any change should be done gradually i think. If the elder person notices that what shes watching is suddenly not the shows she subscribed to. Then she will clam up and refuse to watch the new shows unt OP bring back her "account".
- I would be really pissed if my kids would delete my stuff..
  
  I’m not questioning what’s right and wrong or if this even changes someone’s opinion.
  It’s merely a technical approach that can somewhat work until it’s filled up with the same crap again in a few weeks.
  The person got there once - it’ll likely happen again. But combining this with conversation and actual facts, can be a start.

Invidious or Freetube if she's on a personal computer.

Could also help to deactivate the personalized advertising functionality in the Google/YouTube settings (basically wipe currently stored preference, the forbid YouTube from making suggestions based on your interests). This will keep her feed fairly generic (and bad, oh boy) so that she would have to actively search for or subscribe to these videos.

Get your mom on bondi rescue. She will never watch anything again in her life
- It has to be content in Spanish, that makes it a little difficult because I watch exclusively content on English so I don't know what to recommend her.
  
  You should consider asking for recommendations somewhere there's more Spanish speaking people, because giving the algorithm something new to recommend is necessary to keep the shit away

Redirect youtube to an invidious instance by editing hosts file

I had to log into my 84-year-old grandmother's YouTube account and unsubscribe from a bunch of stuff, "Not interested" on a bunch of stuff, subscribed to more mainstream news sources... But it only works for a couple months.
The problem is the algorithm that values viewing time over anything else.
Watch a news clip from a real news source and then it recommends Fox News. Watch Fox News and then it recommends PragerU. Watch PragerU and then it recommends The Daily Wire. Watch that and then it recommends Steven Crowder. A couple years ago it would go even stupider than Crowder, she'd start getting those videos where it's computer voice talking over stock footage about Hillary Clinton being arrested for being a demonic pedophile. Luckily most of those channels are banned at this point or at least the algorithm doesn't recommend them.
I've thought about putting her into restricted mode, but I think that would be too obvious that I'm manipulating the strings in the background.
Then I thought she's 84, she's going to be dead in a few years, she doesn't vote, does it really matter that she's concerned about trans people trying to cut off little boy's penises or thinks that Obama is wearing ankle monitor because he was arrested by the Trump administration or that aliens are visiting the Earth because she heard it on Joe Rogan?
- I did the same thing, although putting some videos with other things will declutter the algorithm too

To begin with, I'd stop her using the YouTube website logged in.
Set her up with Inoreader - then when you find something interesting, you can visit the 'video' page and subscribe to the feed...
If you log her out, that will mean she just uses it without logging in - which works ok for feeds. She can browse, but it's fresh.
Just a few suggestions that work for me - via RSS feed (not subscribed in Youtube):
Juicy Life
Sci Show
Simonscat
FailArmy
Daily Dose
Vlad Vexler
Big Think
With inoreader it's a simple task to mark all items in a folder as read if you want to skip them. Also, with the inoreader account you can log in remotely at any browser, then you can find stuff you think is cool and subscribe - then that will show up in her feeds.
Not only video/youtube.
!dadjokes works too - Lemmy stuff, any stuff.https://driveandlisten.herokuapp.com/home
Then some interesting pinned tabs/bookmarks like https://window-swap.com/
Then you should also show her the new Radio
I love this site, I found a couple of dozen and added them in pyradio app so I've always got interesting listening when I don't want to stare at the screen.
- She doesn't speak English. Need to be Spanish content or without dialog.
- Damn, that drive and listen and window swap are pretty sweet. I will probably show these to my dad.

No joke, the answer is for her to stop watching YouTube. I drastically reduced my YouTube consumption from like multiple hours a day to max 30 minutes. The algorithm takes into account how many hours you've watched per day.