Algorithmic radicalization. YouTube is spamming my recommendations with trash again.

[Mihalik]

Lately I noticed how YouTube out of the blue starts spamming autoplay and my recommendations with strange crap I literally never watch or have any interest in.

Weird videos where a robotic voice is reading red pill Mgtow crap off of what I suppose are Reddit threads, strange videos of people doing macro economic analysis with the twist that fiat currency is bad and you should buy gold and silver and whatnot.

This is remotely not content I'm interested in, and usually it takes a few days of flagging videos to get YT to stop pushing them, but invariably a few months later that crap shows up again.

The last time I got bombarded was just around the US elections last year.

I've been trying to find any reliable information on what exactly causes this, but frankly I've just come up with a bunch of contradictory articles.

Nevertheless the fact that I actively have to manually weed out this garbage from my recommendations bothers me, and I can see how easily someone can end up going down a weird rabbit hole of batshit crazy content.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algo...radicalization

[Inuyaki]

Lately I noticed how YouTube out of the blue starts spamming autoplay

You just have to disable it once.
Stays deactivated for me for months now.


To the rest of the post, no idea... I am lucky so far

[s_bushido]

The algorithm is garbage, but I've literally never had autoplay enabled outside of specifically watching a playlist... That just seems like a recipe for a bad time.

But you're getting recommended those videos presumably because you watch content like that anyway. I doubt the robot cares that videos made espousing opposite positions will fall into a lot of the same keywords and categories.

[Rennadrel]

It helps avoiding anything to do with politics and then you never see political stuff from bad actors promoted through the algorithm. I haven't watched or followed anything political on there in several years and I never get video suggestions from the likes of Ben Shapiro or any of those other dishonest scumbags.

[Shalcker]

You can actually delete things from your history; this supposedly affects algorithm suggestions.

[Mihalik]

The algorithm is garbage, but I've literally never had autoplay enabled outside of specifically watching a playlist... That just seems like a recipe for a bad time.

But you're getting recommended those videos presumably because you watch content like that anyway. I doubt the robot cares that videos made espousing opposite positions will fall into a lot of the same keywords and categories.

I'm like subbed to TYT and MSNBC, as I live outside the US, I have the NBC Nightly News on in the morning as I prepare to go to work, cuz MSNBC international is TRASH on TV, it's just 85% economics reporting. And a couple of things like Philosophy Tube, Vox, Contrapoints, Hbomberguy, Vaush

The algorithm is pretty fucked if it goes from that to - Qanon Elliott Rodger wannabe shit.

I run autoplay, because sometimes I just have it as background noise I'm half paying attention to while working.

[Forogil]

I run autoplay, because sometimes I just have it as background noise I'm half paying attention to while working.

Could it be that the auto-play started some mildly garbage videos and you didn't pay attention and it then spiraled out of control from that?
To me it seems the auto-play is often based on the last video shown - that's why I try to turn it off.

And obviously it seems clear that Youtube should stop doing algorithmic radicalization like this, since it doesn't work - having people actively click on the videos likely gives a higher conversion ratio.

[Acidbaron]

If you are subbed to American news you will get all sort of american news that is popular based on often your age group and other information.
Also if you accidentally open a link from something someone send you over whatsapp that will also count, let us say you know conspiracy theorists and they send you links on whatsapp that will also be factored in unless you ask them to delete what they send if i am not mistaken.

The system is based on bombarding you with things that are popular in the same category you watch things on and if you ever like something it gets even worse it will try to spam you literally with that crap.

Another aspect of this is, facebook sells your data to advertisers and advertisers sell it on their turn to clients, those client can be of political nature, and so if you ever send a link to someone over facebook, instagram or whatsapp even if it is just to laugh with a political add or video, you are now flagged as a potential interested client of such material.

That is why this company needs to be broken up in multiple parts its reach is too big and it used your data over multiple platforms.

Same shit happens if you use Gmail and google as search engine.

[PrimiOne]

I like to work with relaxing ambiental music. That's literally the only use I have for youtube and the only situation I visit the site.

Sadly most of the content related to that is full of "Open your third eye" , "777Hz the frequency of healing","Attract riches","Realign your chakras","Create an spiritual shield for your family" and a lot of nonsense that some people call pseudoscience although I prefer the term trueshit.

Do I believe in the effect music have in our state of mind? I do because Science does ( it can alter even our brain chemistry) but going from there to "Release your blocked chakras" or "Cure mental diseases" well....no,big bold no.

The consequence of all this: my feed is frankly pretty embarrasing. Whenever I hit the youtube button an army of crazy gurus assault me with the best method to "clean my soul" or "Be a magnet for money by meditating" ( fuck, the guy who created this vid should apply the method to himself because with his 200 subs I don't think it's working). I have even seen ( well not seeing: it was the title) a guy who claimed to cure leukemia ( I'm pretty sure this break youtoube terms).

So the question that I rise is: is the algorithm failing or quite the opposite...this is intentional?

Because the first perspective would be: I suggest to this guy hundreds of videos but 100% of the times he just clicks the ones that are only ambiental music. He never clicks in the ones where some guru explains the "secrets of the universe".Maybe the guy is just interested in the relaxing music and not in the pseudoscience?

At first for a company like google and , yeah , i'm speculating , should be easy to tell apart. The first idea ( maybe naive) is the algorithm should be way more complex than the simple "user clicked in a video with the term'1010 Hz the frequency of inner peace'".

In the end it makes you wonder: maybe this is not an error of the algorithm. Maybe it knows what I like and don't but his internal data shows people who use to listen to that kind of music are in the edge of believing all that pseudoscience ( hint: no,i'm not lol) and WANTS me try.

Maybe the algorithm is designed to be stubborn and although it knows i'm not interested in that he will keep pushing hoping for success after the 10000th suggestion.

[Yunru]

This should help a bit:
https://addons.mozilla.org/sl/firefo...utube-cleaner/
https://addons.mozilla.org/sl/firefox/addon/noscript/
https://addons.mozilla.org/sl/firefo...ublock-origin/
https://addons.mozilla.org/sl/firefo.../sponsorblock/

(not sure wich browser you are using)

Yeah youtube algoritem is garbage. It keeps wanting me to watch some streamers . Even when i wipe history.

There is also some addon that blocks videos on specific keyword, but not sure if it works any more.

[Slant]

Uh...

https://www.youtube.com/feed/subscriptions

Save that in your bookmarks. Thank me later.

[Iliena]

I have been using Pi-hole installed on a Raspberry Pi as DNS ad-block on my home network for the last couple of years, it blocks around 80% of unnecessary web queries and trackers and has reduced tailored content and ads I get down to nearly 0%.
https://pi-hole.net/

I haven't used this method but it can also be installed on a Windows machine using Docker:
https://www.andrewdenty.com/blog/202...indows-10.html

[Coolthulhu]

Getting Mgtow bs after watching Philosophy Tube and Contrapoints is not exactly surprising as they talked about such groups (Contrapoints did, not sure about PT because I've never watched their stuff). That being said, I only get recommendations for political stuff after watching Jim Sterling, which is pretty much the only political stuff I regularly watch. The other recommendations I get are pretty much spot-on, except for the occasional big soccer event I don't care about but it's heavily pushed because sponsors and stuff. As far as I'm concerned, this whole algorithmic radicalization hypothesis is BS, or rather, if you watch content that deals with extremism, you'll get content about extremism (though Jim Sterling often addresses the issue and I've never got Mgtow/QAnon suggestions or anything like that).
That being said, I do use a number of ad/script blockers on top of some other measures and have zero social media presence save for a couple of niche dating sites/apps (on which I uploaded no sensitive PII, obviously). Hell, I don't even get WoW ads despite browing this site.

[Easo]

You can actually delete things from your history; this supposedly affects algorithm suggestions.

It actually does, at least in my experience. Had a lot of housewife stuff in recomendations due to someone using my computer, started disappearing after I cleared them from history..

[Endus]

Getting Mgtow bs after watching Philosophy Tube and Contrapoints is not exactly surprising as they talked about such groups (Contrapoints did, not sure about PT because I've never watched their stuff). That being said, I only get recommendations for political stuff after watching Jim Sterling, which is pretty much the only political stuff I regularly watch. The other recommendations I get are pretty much spot-on, except for the occasional big soccer event I don't care about but it's heavily pushed because sponsors and stuff. As far as I'm concerned, this whole algorithmic radicalization hypothesis is BS, or rather, if you watch content that deals with extremism, you'll get content about extremism (though Jim Sterling often addresses the issue and I've never got Mgtow/QAnon suggestions or anything like that).
That being said, I do use a number of ad/script blockers on top of some other measures and have zero social media presence save for a couple of niche dating sites/apps (on which I uploaded no sensitive PII, obviously). Hell, I don't even get WoW ads despite browing this site.

I'm subbed to both Abigail and Natalie, and also Cody Johnston's Some More News, and I don't get MGTOW stuff in my suggestions, so I don't think that's the source. I don't follow proper news through Youtube, but most of my feed is gaming stuff (vidya or D&D), writing stuff, or science/debunking stuff. Most of my reccomendations are actually pretty on-point with what I use Youtube for. If anything, it's getting a little too recursive and just recommending stuff I've already watched.

[Coolthulhu]

I'm subbed to both Abigail and Natalie, and also Cody Johnston's Some More News, and I don't get MGTOW stuff in my suggestions, so I don't think that's the source. I don't follow proper news through Youtube, but most of my feed is gaming stuff (vidya or D&D), writing stuff, or science/debunking stuff. Most of my reccomendations are actually pretty on-point with what I use Youtube for. If anything, it's getting a little too recursive and just recommending stuff I've already watched.

Probably some more ideologically-charged content he watches then. Or it could happen to people who think proper news can be found on YouTube. None of the newspapers I follow posts stuff there that I'm aware of at least, why would they want to divert traffic traffic from their (often at least partially paywalled) websites after all?
Same exact thing here in regards to the underlined part.

[Muzjhath]

Getting Mgtow bs after watching Philosophy Tube and Contrapoints is not exactly surprising as they talked about such groups (Contrapoints did, not sure about PT because I've never watched their stuff). That being said, I only get recommendations for political stuff after watching Jim Sterling, which is pretty much the only political stuff I regularly watch. The other recommendations I get are pretty much spot-on, except for the occasional big soccer event I don't care about but it's heavily pushed because sponsors and stuff. As far as I'm concerned, this whole algorithmic radicalization hypothesis is BS, or rather, if you watch content that deals with extremism, you'll get content about extremism (though Jim Sterling often addresses the issue and I've never got Mgtow/QAnon suggestions or anything like that).
That being said, I do use a number of ad/script blockers on top of some other measures and have zero social media presence save for a couple of niche dating sites/apps (on which I uploaded no sensitive PII, obviously). Hell, I don't even get WoW ads despite browing this site.

My assumption is that TYT is far more of a likely culprit. As I guess a lot of DUDEBRO assholes watches them and then go on to watch Thunderfoot or somecrap, which then leads to Q-Annon.

[PC2]

Eh, I feel like people are too OCD about it. All AI algorithms are kind of dumb right now so I just ignore the occasional anomaly. People get all worked up about seeing "the wrong content". I think algorithmic accuracy and neutrality will improve over the years, have some patience.

[cubby]

Lately I noticed how YouTube out of the blue starts spamming autoplay and my recommendations with strange crap I literally never watch or have any interest in.

Weird videos where a robotic voice is reading red pill Mgtow crap off of what I suppose are Reddit threads, strange videos of people doing macro economic analysis with the twist that fiat currency is bad and you should buy gold and silver and whatnot.

This is remotely not content I'm interested in, and usually it takes a few days of flagging videos to get YT to stop pushing them, but invariably a few months later that crap shows up again.

The last time I got bombarded was just around the US elections last year.

I've been trying to find any reliable information on what exactly causes this, but frankly I've just come up with a bunch of contradictory articles.

Nevertheless the fact that I actively have to manually weed out this garbage from my recommendations bothers me, and I can see how easily someone can end up going down a weird rabbit hole of batshit crazy content.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algo...radicalization

I promise this is related, but have you read Neil Stephenson's Fall; or, Dodge in Hell?There is some really good narrative, prior to the main plot, about the future of devices and streaming and algorithmic targeting of people to carry their narrative/echo-chamber forward. I'm not saying that's what happening with you, nor that you even have an echo chamber, merely that this is kinda the start of that.

[Krakan]

Just how the world works. I mostly use youtube to play classical music most notably violin but auto play randomly shoved a rap based on an animal about morally just demons murdering Angel's...


I oddly enjoyed it though maybe it's on to something.