Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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

Posted by msmash on from the fixing-things dept.

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."

13 of 271 comments (clear)

  1. And soon enough on some growing PHPBB forum... by Z80a · · Score: 5, Funny

    "See? NASA made youtube to DELETE all the flat earth videos to hide the truth!"

    1. Re:And soon enough on some growing PHPBB forum... by jwhyche · · Score: 4, Funny

      I wouldn't mind if youtube would be a little more picky on its recommendations. Not to just base them off one video that I watch. I watched, really didn't even watch, more like flipped through, one flat earth video. Next thing you know I'm on the "youtube nutball" list. Everything from bigfoot raped my dog to Elvis is pumping gas down at the 7-11.

      --
      I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
  2. Who determines what is unsavory? by JamesNorton · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "These recommendations all too often serve up unsavory content:" Which overlord(s) will determine for the algorithm what is considered "unsavory"?

    1. Re:Who determines what is unsavory? by gillbates · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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? As in, enjoying people making an ass of themselves, like the white collar equivalent of stupid redneck videos?

      There's an important, unspoken assumption here: that people who watch videos agree with the content. This is a very dangerous assumption to make, because the fact that people will assume you hold a set of positions based on what you watch has the effect of shutting down discourse. The American experiment was an experiment in determining if differing peoples - diverse cultures, ethnicities, etc... could come together and form a country united by a common creed - the Constitution. If we have to shelter people from unfamiliar or uncomfortable ideas, we've essentially admitted that the American experiment has failed; that multiculturalism and diversity are a sham and unworkable. In such a case, tribalism is justified, and ethnic nationalism required, if only for the survival of "your" kind.

      What Youtube should be doing is encouraging people to seek out the different, the bizarre, the intransigent evangelists and propaganda to further prepare themselves to interact with the ever increasing diversity of America. What they are doing is quite the opposite; by sheltering people from extreme views, even moderate disagreement - the par for civil discourse in ages past, an inevitable part of making compromises for the public good - is now seen as hatred, and labelled as such (witness the Covington Catholic junior who was called a racist for having smiled at a minority person).[https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/19/us/teens-mock-native-elder-trnd/index.html]

      --
      The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
    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.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    3. Re:Who determines what is unsavory? by farble1670 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What Youtube should be doing is encouraging people to seek out the different, the bizarre, the intransigent evangelists and propaganda to further prepare themselves to interact with the ever increasing diversity of America.

      Youtube isn't a person. It isn't a government entity. It isn't a prophet, or a teacher. The only thing it does is optimize for profit. Saying it should do this or that for the betterment of society is like saying a squirrel should see a psychiatrist. Don't expect Youtube to be anything other than what keeps people watching the longest and causes the least friction in society.

  3. Well there goes 10% of their content by mnemotronic · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Youtube has a LOT of conspiracy theory stuff. How do you separate the innocent "aliens ate my brain" stuff from the "Inside Hillary's secret child porn studio on Mars". That "line" might be obvious to some people, but not everyone, and the fact that there is a line could be considered disturbing too. Why not just superimpose a flashing "PROBABLY BULL$HIT" on the video content if it gets close to, or over, that vague line?

    --
    The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
  4. So youtube is going to fight conpiracies by Crashmarik · · Score: 4, Interesting

    about cabals trying to control what you can see and hear by forming one of their own ?

    Well bitchute https://www.bitchute.com/ will be happy for the traffic, and seeing as they are distributed and powered by bit torrent it should make a nice alternative to the company that used to "Do No Evil"

  5. Conspiracy Theories That Turned Out To Be True by pgmrdlm · · Score: 5, Interesting

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    It is not even close to the top of my list to listen to Conspiracy Theories. Hell, I usually tell people to wrap that tin foil hat a little tighter. But it is a fact that there are Conspiracy Theories that have turned out to be true. Who the fuck is google(notice my link is youtube) to say what is true and what is not.

    --
    Anonymous comments are as pathetic as the anonymous "sources" that contaminate gutless journalism from the New York Time
  6. The abuse of free speech. by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    My opinion is there is problem as I see it is there is a big abuse on free speech.
    The line where someone is stating an opinion, is stating a fact, or is stating parody has gotten very blurred.
    Back in the 1990's I have (as I expect others would have too) posted some parody posts about a flat earth mainly to show the arguments against evolution (as Kansas blocking evolution from text books was an issue then).

    What seemed to have happened was this parody had been passed with the pseudoscience and half baked conclusions got read by someone who just didn't see this as parody but as fact. And then increased on this topic, and combing with their belief of grand conspiracies to show the topic. Then it just grew further.

    Before the internet we had our opinions which can be published in the opinion section of the news papers. People read it and know it was just our opinion. Parody was well defined as such, and fact had a lot of official backing behind it.

    Now with the internet we are flooded with too much info, and need more skills to separate truth from fiction. And conspiracy logic will always seem to be a strong counter argument to official channels, to a point today where conspiracy theories are now on the official channels as well, muddying the water even further.

     

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  7. Google does by rsilvergun · · Score: 4, Insightful

    it's their website.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  8. 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.

    --
    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
  9. 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.