YouTube Lets Users Override Recommendations After Criticism (bloomberg.com) 91
YouTube said it will let users override automated recommendations after criticism over how the online video service suggests and filters toxic clips. From a report: "Although we try our best to suggest videos you'll enjoy, we don't always get it right, so we are giving you more controls for when we don't," Essam El-Dardiry, a product manager at YouTube, wrote in a blog on Wednesday. Users will now be able to tell YouTube to stop suggesting videos from a particular channel by tapping the three-dot menu next to a video on the homepage or Up Next, then choosing "Don't recommend channel." After that, viewers should no longer see videos from that channel, El-Dardiry said. The move comes after Susan Wojcicki and other YouTube executives were criticized for being either unable or unwilling to act on internal warnings about extreme and misleading videos because they were too focused on increasing viewing time and other measures of engagement.
They already have that (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:They already have that (Score:4, Interesting)
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Isn't that what the subscription feature does? Click subscription, it gives you a list of videos that appear in your feed.
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Oh, wow, I never knew that was there! Thanks. Somehow watching a lot of science-related videos keeps putting flat earth stuff in my recommendation list, which was funny for about a day.
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I wish YouTube would offer more variety with recommendations. It's less about discovery and more about giving you more of the same.
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I wish YouTube would offer more variety with recommendations. It's less about discovery and more about giving you more of the same.
Recommendations are based on your history. So if you're watching a pile of progressive junk, you get more progressive junk. Same if you're watching republican or conservative. And if I'm listening to Infected Mushroom, I get more psytrance recommendations too. The problem is that it works very well for music and 'raw' information, it doesn't work well for anything related to politics. And most people are likely to ignore political recommendations because youtube decided to start being arbiters of truth
Maybe this means we get small creators again (Score:2)
Will filter out CNN, Fox, MSNBC, The Hill, and all major studios the moment this becomes available.
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Maybe this means we get small creators again
No, what it will mean is that whatever you end up not filtering out will feel the ban hammer next.
Not good enough... (Score:1)
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Toxic Clips (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Toxic Clips (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, this new feature doesn't seem to have much to do with the problem - Google trying to influence elections.
Where this probably leads is a new way of brigading certain channels and ensuring they don't appear in recommendations at all because "users don't want them."
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It was stupid when people were trying to claim that it was the Russians trying to influence our elections and it's just as stupid when people are complaining about Google doing it.
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Because you blithering pathetic excuse for a sentient being, the news media corporations are not covered by Section 230.
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Whoops, responded to the wrong person.
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Quit trying to force behavior on other people and take some responsibility by refusing to do business with bad actors. I had no problems finding alternatives that work perfectly well and do a much better job respecting my privacy.
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Everyone is trying to influence elections. It's called political donations. Why should we be upset at Google for clearly being biased when every single major news network or media company has been since time immemorial.
One clear reason. Google benefits from being a neutral platform under Section 230 of the CDA. Once they start trying to influence elections, they are obviously no longer neutral. That means they should be liable for what they choose to publish on their platform.
Toxic videos should be met with lawsuits against Google for publishing that toxic crap. Any libel or defamation in any video, sue Google!
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But they're not [slate.com].
And lose.
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Keep telling yourself that. That's the solution to finding yourself in a hole: just keep digging.
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Will do. Keep telling yourself that 2018 was a fluke.
Spoken by someone who's never watched an excavator dig a foundation. Hint: dig sideways.
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The Dems victory in 2020 is absolutely as assured as Hillarly's in 2016. The polls already show it!
Re:Toxic Clips (Score:5, Informative)
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Jen Gennai is the head of “Responsible Innovation” for Google, a sector that monitors and evaluates the responsible implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies. In the video, Gennai says Google has been working diligently to “prevent” the results of the 2016 election from repeating in 2020:
“We all got screwed over in 2016, again it wasn’t just us, it was, the people got screwed over, the news media got screwed over, like, everybody got screwed over so we’re rapidly been like, what happened there and how do we prevent it from happening again.”
“We’re also training our algorithms, like, if 2016 happened again, would we have, would the outcome be different?”
“Elizabeth Warren is saying we should break up Google,” she said, referring to the Massachusetts Democrat’s wish to break up big tech. The senator wants to impose new rules on tech companies with $25 billion or more in annual ad revenue, forcing Amazon and Google to dramatically reduce their hold on online commerce.
“And like, I love her but she’s very misguided, like that will not make it better it will make it worse, because all these smaller companies who don’t have the same resources that we do will be charged with preventing the next Trump situation, it’s like a small company cannot do that,” Gennai added.
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Yeah, this new feature doesn't seem to have much to do with the problem - Google trying to influence elections.
I thought the problem was that Google's recommendation engine is a one-way ratchet to extremist videos. Pick any topic, start following recommendations, and within an hour or two you're down some rabbit hole you never would have believed could exist.
How about on the page while the video is playing? (Score:2)
Like, this video sucks. I want to block this user's content but there's no way to do it directly from this page.
Instead I have to look through the list of thumbnails of recommended content for more from this user, expand the three-dot menu then select it from there.
Seriously, what is so difficult about providing easy access to a feature where users are most likely to want it and use it?
50 anime memes (Score:3)
So no more of that suggestion of "anime memes" or whatever weeb bullshit that everyone seemed to get.
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I have never, never been recommended any "anime memes". It sounds like you've been secretly searching for stupid and kinky content and don't want to admit it. Or, to be fair, did you consider that someone else has been using your account/device? "Everyone" does not see that shit.
It's the same force that causes Network Decay, in action. As TV Tropes put it, advertisers say "hey, this speculative writing channel is full of adult males age 18-31. Adult males of that age are the prime audience for professional wrestling! Therefore, the people on this writing channel probably want to watch professional wrestling." You can search for stuff popular with one demographic, and Youtube will assume you're interested in all the OTHER stuff that demographic likes too.
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Google can't even get their own shit straight.
The three dots is "more" in Googleeze, and the three lines is "menu".
Cobra Kaii (Score:3)
Can I now stop all those freaking Cobra Kaii ads every 3rd video??!?
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All I get is the fucking annoying SOUNBOKS ads.
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I didn't even know there were ads until I went there without a blocker one time.
NIce try (Score:2)
But you're still editing content and acting as intellectual gatekeepers.
That's not your job, and I truly hope the Justice Department shatters you to hell.
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^ I'm going to say "QED" on that one.
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How old is this article? (Score:2)
or block recommendations altogether (Score:2)
If you use uBlock origin, you can individually click on the recommendations that pop up near the end of the video and just block them. There are about fifteen elements to block but after you do that all the annoying recommendations stop (they are annoying because they block the end of the video).