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YouTube To Curb Conspiracy Theory Video Recommendations (venturebeat.com)

YouTube said today that it is retooling its recommendation algorithm that suggests new videos to users in order to prevent promoting conspiracies and false information, reflecting a growing willingness to quell misinformation on the world's largest video platform after several public missteps. From a report: These recommendations all too often serve up unsavory content: ludicrous conspiracy theories about mass-shooting events being staged, far-fetched proclamations that the moon landing never happened, and hare-brained notions that the Earth on which we live is, well, flat. Moving forward, YouTube promises that you'll see less of those kinds of videos. This is similar to moves it's made in the past to reduce clickbaity recommendations, or videos that are slight variations on something else you've watched.

"We'll continue that work this year, including taking a closer look at how we can reduce the spread of content that comes close to -- but doesn't quite cross the line of -- violating our Community Guidelines," YouTube said in a blog post. "While this shift will apply to less than one percent of the content on YouTube, we believe that limiting the recommendation of these types of videos will mean a better experience for the YouTube community."

4 of 271 comments (clear)

  1. Re:And soon enough on some growing PHPBB forum... by lgw · · Score: 2, Informative

    Did you dislike the video? That's how you tell YouTube's recommendation engine not to recommend more of the same.

    --
    Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  2. Re:Who determines what is unsavory? by squiggleslash · · Score: 5, Informative

    But what if I find flat-earth conspiracy videos HILARIOUS!? Does it even occur to the censors-that-be that some people find conspiracy theories entertaining?

    1. How is this new policy censorship?
    2. How will it prevent you in any way from watching these videos?

    This is about recommendations, you know, the videos that autoplay after the one you selected if you opened it in a new browser and hadn't had a chance to turn autoplay off. It's not about what YouTube will or will not allow on its platform.

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    You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  3. Re:9/11 truther video Loose Change is 6 years old by lactose99 · · Score: 4, Informative

    There is no opportunity to learn if you censor someone you disagree with.

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    Censorship is NEVER the solution. It is PRECISELY the PROBLEM.

    This isn't censorship, its simply not promoting crap conspiracies. Cretins can still post them to YouTube if they want.

    Learning stupid is much worse than sitting idle, not every harebrained idea deserves mindshare.

    --
    Fully licensed blockchain psychiatrist
  4. Re:9/11 truther video Loose Change is 6 years old by farble1670 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Censorship is NEVER the solution. It is PRECISELY the PROBLEM.

    Except there's no censorship here. The creators of those videos are free to move them to another platform, or host them on their own servers, or share them via peer-peer, or whatever. Nobody is stopping them.