Algorithmic Extremism: Examining YouTube's Rabbit Hole of Radicalization · HackerPapers discussions

Algorithmic Extremism: Examining YouTube's Rabbit Hole of Radicalization — mentioned by ctoth

Tue, 03 Aug 2021 22:32:56 GMT

I'd appreciate any links you have to this evidence. I also found this: > After conducting a detailed analysis of recommendations received by each channel type, we refute the popular radicalization claims. To the contrary, these data suggest that YouTube’s recommendation algorithm actively discourages viewers from visiting radicalizing or extremist content. Instead, the algorithm is shown to favor mainstream media and cable news content over independent YouTube channels with slant towards left-leaning or politically neutral channels. Our study thus suggests that YouTube’s recommendation…

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Algorithmic Extremism: Examining YouTube's Rabbit Hole of Radicalization — mentioned by jakelazaroff

Wed, 09 Dec 2020 18:27:41 GMT

Not sure why this is downvoted. The YouTube radicalization pathway is fairly well documented, e.g. [1][2][3]. Even if we can't all agree on the specific mechanism of action, the phenomenon certainly exists. [1] https://arxiv.org/abs/1912.11211 [2] https://mark-ledwich.medium.com/youtube-radicalization-an-au... [3] https://www.wired.com/story/not-youtubes-algorithm-radicaliz...

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Algorithmic Extremism: Examining YouTube's Rabbit Hole of Radicalization — mentioned by stolenmerch

Tue, 08 Dec 2020 16:17:14 GMT

I know a few journalists really want to push this narrative, but I think the more it's been carefully studied, the more it's been debunked. E.g: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1912.11211.pdf "After conducting a detailed analysis of recommendations received by each channel type, we refute the popular radicalization claims. To the contrary, these data suggest that YouTubes recommendation algorithm actively discourages viewers from visiting radicalizing or extremist content. Instead, the algorithm is shown to favor mainstream media and cable news content over independent YouTube channels with slant…

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Algorithmic Extremism: Examining YouTube's Rabbit Hole of Radicalization — mentioned by pseudo0

Thu, 17 Sep 2020 22:02:07 GMT

Some of this blandness may be by design, at least when it comes to political content. YouTube caught a lot of flak in 2018 for allegedly being a "radicalization pipeline", but research[0] shows that their "next video" recommendations consistently direct users away from fringe content and towards mainstream media outlets. One of the authors of that paper made a website to visualize their results[1], which is pretty neat. The research in question was limited by not using logged-in accounts with a significant view history, but it's still the best attempt to quantify the YouTube algorithm's…

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Algorithmic Extremism: Examining YouTube's Rabbit Hole of Radicalization — mentioned by manfredo

Wed, 15 Jul 2020 00:59:21 GMT

Doing what you suggest has an immense issue of selection bias. You go into youtube trying to see if it recommends right wing videos, and you're going to be a lot more likely to click on right wing videos. Which then informs the algorithm that you're interested in right wing videos. The correct way to test this is to write a program, not to just watch youtube while logged off. I used selenium to do exactly this. Start at a video, and do a breadth based search based on recommendations. No such preference for far right videos exist. It's frequently get into a hole of certain topics (e.g. first…

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Algorithmic Extremism: Examining YouTube's Rabbit Hole of Radicalization — mentioned by manfredo

Mon, 29 Jun 2020 22:32:37 GMT

Can you link to Tufekci's research? I can only find the NYTimes op-ed. Furthermore it's worth nothing that other studies determined the opposite, YouTube disproportionately recommends left leaning content: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1912.11211.pdf

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Algorithmic Extremism: Examining YouTube's Rabbit Hole of Radicalization — mentioned by JamesBarney

Mon, 29 Jun 2020 20:30:48 GMT

My money is on it has the opposite effect, and by banning these people it moves their fans onto fringe platforms that will shuttle them towards even more bizarre/fringe/extreme views. Here's a study that shows it pushes people towards more moderate videos. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1912.11211.pdf

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Algorithmic Extremism: Examining YouTube's Rabbit Hole of Radicalization — mentioned by bhupy

Wed, 24 Jun 2020 16:09:37 GMT

> I didn't have to look very far; Facebook did the study itself, internally, and executives directly chose to ignore it: https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/26/21270659/facebook-divisio.... While this is indeed a compelling data point, I want to point out 2 things: 1. We have no way to verify the validity of the methodology, since the study is opaque to us. 2. We have no way to verify the veracity of the results, since the study is not peer reviewed. And while you didn't have to look very far, perhaps if you look even a little farther, you'll find that there are conflicting studies (in published…

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Algorithmic Extremism: Examining YouTube's Rabbit Hole of Radicalization — HN submission

Sat, 28 Dec 2019 23:02:55 GMT

YouTube’s Rabbit Hole of Radicalization [pdf]

115 points; 111 discussion replies on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.

Algorithmic Extremism: Examining YouTube's Rabbit Hole of Radicalization — mentioned by spencerwgreene

Sat, 28 Dec 2019 19:02:27 GMT

Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1912.11211. Tweets: https://twitter.com/mark_ledwich/status/1210743158184693760.

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Algorithmic Extremism: Examining YouTube's Rabbit Hole of Radicalization — HN submission

Sat, 28 Dec 2019 12:11:00 GMT

Algorithmic Extremism: Examining YouTube's Rabbit Hole of Radicalization

5 points; 2 discussion replies on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.

Algorithmic Extremism: Examining YouTube's Rabbit Hole of Radicalization — HN submission

Sat, 28 Dec 2019 02:50:52 GMT

Algorithmic Extremism: Examining YouTube's Rabbit Hole of Radicalization

2 points; 0 discussion replies on HN. Paper and source history. A submission is not an endorsement.