Why is youtube recommending conservative "talking points" to me?
Why is youtube recommending conservative "talking points" to me?
Hi, I am a guy in early thirties with a wife and two kids and whenever I go on youtube it always suggests conservative things like guys dunking on women, ben shapiro reacting to some bullshit, joe rogan, all the works. I almost never allow it to go to that type of video and when I do it is either by accident or by curiosity. My interest are gaming, standup comedy, memes, react videos, metalurgy, machining, blacksmithing, with occasional songs and videos about funny bullshit and I am not from america and I consider myself pretty liberal if I had to put it into terms used in america. But european liberal, so by american standards a socialist. Why does it recommend this shit to me, is this some kind of vector for radicalization of guys in my category? Do you have similar experience?
If I accidently watch a Linus Tech tips video, that will be all it recommends me for the next month.
I watched a Some More News video criticizing Jordan Peterson, and Google thought "did I hear Jordan Peterson? Well in that case, here's 5 of his videos!"
Almost all content algorithms are hot garbage that are not interested in serving you what you want, just what makes money. It always ends up serving right wing nut jobs because that conspiracy theorists watch a lot of scam videos.
Edit: my little jab at Linus has nothing to do with politics. I have no idea what his views are. I only mentioned it to point out how YouTube will annihilate my recommendations if I watch a single one of his videos.
Because 'conservative' content gets a lot of engagement (ie ad money). The more they recommend it the bigger the audience, the bigger ad payout. They're literally monetizing hate.
My interest are gaming, standup comedy, memes, react videos, metalurgy, machining, blacksmithing,
Because a lot of the type of guys who like seeing those stupid conservative videos also like many of the same things as you. Gaming^(TM) is well known to have a problem with the alt-right, react videos have a very similar structure to conservative “libs destroyed with fact and logic” types of videos, and finally a lot of conservatives like to think of themselves as an old fashioned man’s-man so they enjoy things like metalwork and other typical “manly” careers.
Your interests have a strong correlation with people on the right aside from maybe react videos.
But even if your interested were not so strongly correlated with the right, you would probably still get right wing ads or videos suggested. They garner the highest engagement because it is often outrage porn. Google gets their money that way. My subscriptions are to let wing political channels, science, and solar channels but I still get a decent amount of PragerU and Matt Walsh ads. Reporting then does not stop them from popping up either.
Right-wing media is well-funded.
For me if I ever look up warhammer 40k it immediately starts sending me losers like quartering or other channels like him.
Like, bo youtube, I don't want to hear about how feminism and "wokes" are ruining warhammer. I also don't want to be sent Sargon of Carl videos. Uhg. Lmao
One thing I noticed about browsing the youtube homepage on PC is if your mouse hovers over a video, it starts playing, and that puts it in your watch history. So you might be accidentally adding a trash video it recommended to your watch history while looking at the other offerings. You can disable the "mouse hover auto play" by clicking your profile pic in the top right > settings > playback and performance > inline playback.
You need to train your algorithm.
When you hover over those videos there will be three dots in the lower right hand corner use either not interested or don't recommend this channel to clear the right wing trash from your feed.
On videos you do like you need to do some engagement, watch complete videos, thumbs up (or down it doesn't matter) and comment.
Do that for a few days and your feed should clear up.
Algorithms. It's why I use newpipe on mobile and freetube on desktop. Both allow me to import and export my subscription list, and block ads and have sponsorblock support.
But, most importantly it doesn't make use of the Google algorithm to try and recommend me videos that might be of the radical nature on misinterpretation of past viewing history.
I've been vegetarian since 2009 and in the past 2-3 years I keep getting all kinds of bow hunting videos.
It's particularly amusing when my plan was to watch an old episode of "The Golden Girls."
They REALLY misread my demographic.
Conseratives and fascists are the same group, so I'll refer to them as fascists.
You are talking about one of the core criticisms of corporate secret algorithms to determine what to influence you with. Fascism is forced to creep into everyones world view when you use standard social media, and the average person wouldn't have the slightest idea. Certain key things will be more related to fascist content, like philosophy, psychology, guns, comedy. If you think about what fascists enjoy, or what they need to slander then it makes what I said make more sense.
Jordan Peterson does a lot of vids around psych/philosophy to redirect curious people to false answers that are close to true but more agreeable for fascists. An example of a psychological cooption is "mass psychosis" being coopted into "mass formation psychosis" by fascists. Mass psychosis explains too many true things, where mass formation psychosis redirects people towards a more palletable direction for them.
This is why I want to be nowhere near corporate media if possible. If you delete your cookies(or private browse for the same effect) then youtube will promote the most adjacent things to what you watch like old youtube used to do, although it'll still promote fascism when directly adjacent. With cookies though they have an excuse to have questionable content linger statistically too often.
I'm 30 and have a small family, too. When I watch shorts on YouTube I get the exact same content you're describing. None of the long videos I'm watching are political, yet the Algo keeps throwing them at me. I get a lot of Jordan Peterson crap or lil Wayne explaining how there's no racism. I hate it.
You can see what Google (thinks it) knows about you.
- Go to your Google Account (https://myaccount.google.com)
- Manage your Google Account
- Select Privacy and personalisation.
- Under this Data & privacy page you'll find History Settings, Ad Settings, and more.
- For example, go to Ad Settings and click on Ad Personalization.
- Now you'll see How your ads are personalized.
I think you can even remove stuff if you want.
A while back the conservative party of Canada was caught inserting MGTOW / Ben Shapiro tags on all their Youtube uploads. In other words they were poisoning peoples social graph in order to cause exactly what you're talking about.
This is why I use a Google account that is only for Youtube entertainment. I keep it on a separate chromium profile. I turn on all the privacy toggles in the Google account. Only Youtube history is turned on. I curate the watch history.
You cannot tell what content might have breadcrumbs that eventually open the floodgates of far right echo chambers. They do this intentionally. So it requires active measures on your part to counter them. You've got to manage your account with intention. I do not use that account at all for random browsing. I usually do that in incognito on a different browser.
The algorithm wants engagement first and foremost (positive vs negative is irrelevant), after that it wants to push view points that preserve the status quo since change is scary to shareholders. So of course capitalist/fascist propaganda is preferred especially if the host is wrong about basic facts (being wrong drives engagement.)
Those types of videos have the most engagement. YouTube is trying to show you whatever it thinks will keep you there longer.
Turns out conservative radicalization keeps people longer there. I’ve never googled or watched any Andrew Tate videos but my recommended has at least 3 videos front and center.
It's because you are a guy in your 30s. You (and me) are in a shitty demographic so the algorithm peddles us shit. It doesn't matter how many times I list shitheel vids by the ppl you me mentioned as "do not recommend channel", I will always have Rogan or Peterson popping up in my feed to ruin my day. It drives me crazy
I bought a new phone a few months back, and just for shits and giggles I tried looking at YouTube Shorts without any account logged in. I clicked on a food Shorts, and within 5 Shorts, I got a "manosphere" video, and within 10 Shorts I got Ben Shapiro.
Unfortunately, fear and rage drive engagement, and these Conservative grifters are more than happy to give it to them and more. That on top of corporations being Capitalists and thus right-wing by default.
If you watch any kind of gaming videos, and haven't trained your algorithm, then you'll get flooded with this shit
"Hi, I'm a guy in early thirties--"
Well there's your answer.
you are a closet conservative. the algoritham has spoken.
A few years ago I downloaded a browser extension to stop showing me recommended videos, both on the homepage and on the side of videos. I can only watch what I'm subscribed to and what I search for - you'd think its a big sacrifice because you can't discover as many videos, but in reality I've gained so much more of my time back and control over what I actually want to watch.
The algorithm is clever enough to know that people that watch a few of those videos are likely to watch a whole lot more. So it’s good business to recommend them as often as possible. If they CAN convince you to dive into that, the stats are that you will start to watch a ton more YouTube content.
I almost never allow it
The times you do allow it are all the algorithm cares about, sadly. Any kind of engagement is great for companies.
"Hate Rogan? Cool, watch some Rogan as hateporn, hate watching is still watching."
Hi, I am a guy in early thirties with a wife and two kids and whenever I go on youtube it always suggests conservative things like guys dunking on women
Yeah it really wants me to watch Tim pool. Its like cmon guys I'm too old for that guys tastes. Tiktok will atleast take the hint
Because controversy makes money and conservatism is filled with controversial opinions and purposely obtuse takes intended to spark conversation and promote divisiveness. That’s the grift.
I think such content gets most engagement. Dunking on leftist ideas brings right wingers celebrating and parroting the piece while pissed left wingers trying to explain why the argument doesn't make sense.
I get right wing stuff only on YouTube shorts typically. And I think it's because I'll watch them. I find it interesting in a detached sense.
Good to know what you're up against. Same reason I try and watch as many Trump speeches as I reasonably can.
metalurgy, machining, blacksmithing
That could be it. I don't know YouTube's algorithm, but typically they work by finding what other users watch the videos you watch and recommending you other videos those people also watched. I wouldn't be surprised if the guys watching blacksmithing videos also tend to watch Joe Rogan and the like.
If they piss you off, you will stay on their platform longer, and they make more money.
That is the sad truth of EVERY social network.
Lemmy might not be that advanced yet, but as soon as they get big enough to need ads to pay for bandwidth and storage, soon after they will add algorithms that will show you stuff that pisses you off.
One way to combat this is to take a break from the site. Usually after a week, when you come back it will be better for a while.
I'll see major swings in the algorithm from time to time (a week of bass guitar video recommendations for some reason), but I can usually trace back a video or two that I watched that it just decided to try and cram the topic down my throat. I would just say make sure you keep avoiding the conservative vids to try and get the recommendations to stop. I wonder if maybe one of your kids is watching videos on your account and skewing it?
"The calls are coming from inside the house"~~__****
You can view what Google "knows" about you on your account settings. I made my account when I was very young, I lied about my age and my gender, then it made assumptions based on my interests of my professional situation. I guess many people in my gender and age group, sharing my actual interests (tech, movies, culture, food) are also interested in the kind of content you described (Joe Rogan, Jordan Peterson, Yiannopolous, etc). I keep clicking "not interested", but the algorithm keep suggesting these videos to me. I don't mind that Google doesn't know my politics. I'm a feminist, but there's really not a lot of interesting discourse about feminism on Youtube, so I just read and attend real life lectures instead.
machining
No idea about your algorithm problems but have you seen the Cutting Edge Engineering Australia channel? It's so good.
I would wager a guess that it's your regular interests. YouTube sees that people who like machining, blacksmithing, etc. have a good chance of also being conservative. You probably are just part of the odd cases where you like those hobbies but aren't conservative.
Your post raises an interesting point, though: even if YouTube didn't intend for their algorithm to be a pipeline for radicalism, simply by encouraging engagement and viewership, their algorithm ends up becoming a radicalization pipeline anyways.
This can't be any more clearer
Android TV- install smartnexttube Android phone- Set private DNS to Nextdns and block all ads + install firefox w/ unlock origin Or if you want an app install - newpipe from fdroid app store
The best way to tune the algorithm on Youtube is to aggressively prune your watch/search history.
Even just one "stereotypical" video can cause your recommendations to go to shit.I used to get reasonable content as per my interests. Now after having a kid its just baby songs and bluey. I use smarttubenext on a firestick so at least I don't get ads but it's not great.
If I use a private window, and don't log in I get a lot of right-wing stuff. I've noticed it probably depends on IP/location as well. If at work, youtube seems recommend me things other people at the office listen to.
If I'm logged in, I only get occasional right-wing recommendations interspersed with the left-wing stuff I typically like. About 1/20 videos are right-wing.
YouTube Shorts is different. It's almost all thirst-traps and right-wing, hustle culture stuff for me.
It could also be because a lot of the people who watch the same videos you do tend to also watch right-wing stuff.
In general, the algorithm tries to boost the stuff that maximizes "engagement," which is usually outrage-type stuff.
Yeah. I never really watched shorts, but I recently started watching them and I get tons of right-wing/red-pill shit in there despite clicking on "dont recommend this channel" (or whatever it says) on like 50 of those types of channels.
You need to learn how to properly prune your feed. I got some of that stuff briefly, but I kept blocking it and choosing not interested and eventually it stops. My feed shows me nothing I dont want now. Its just a matter of shaping it into what you want.
Just use Odysee, the YouTube algorithm is fully cooked from millions of hours of pure crap being posted every day.
you can try getting another advertisement I'd
search on duckduckgo how to
Social Media in general has that habit of furthered spreading far right content and dragging people into such content bubbles.
My YouTube recommendations are usually spot on, but I do get Joe Rogan videos sometimes. I could see people sliding into radicalizing garbage easily from there. Rogan's so big that he gets cool guests, but they're wasted on him as a host.
Even if you watch leftwing videos sometimes YouTube just goes "oh you're a young-ish male who's into politics? Here's som nazi vids you'll like." ESPECIALLY if the leftwing videos talk about righty's.
Could be paid promotion. I get a lot of suggestions in my feed for some really awful music in genres that I never listen to. I wouldn’t be surprised if the record label is paying to put it there.
You can get rid of a lot of the bullshit YouTube loves to shove down your throat by telling it not to recommend the channel. I haven't got any of that garbage in years
What state do you live in?
I know I’m doing good WHEN I get served this kind of content. I don’t browse YT logged in, my browser always deletes cookies upon closure, and I run Ghostery/add block plugins.
Living in Texas, I kinda assume that is why I constantly get this right wing content (ads, vid recommendations). I figure my location is all they know about me and so that is why I get served this content.
It just tells me they don’t know anything about me so my countermeasures are working 🤞🏼