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?

SaltySalamander,
@SaltySalamander@lemmy.fmhy.ml avatar

Why does it recommend this shit to me

Because you, or someone using your account, has watched this type of shit in the past.

elkaki,

Not necessarily, although YouTube shorts may be it’s own thing in terms of algorithm I frequently see andrew tate, ben shapiro, jordan peterdon clips despite disliking and inmediatly scrolling past when I see their faces. Also I have encountered a lot of anti feminism content of the likes of 2014 this year, where someone is seen mocking “feminists” making what seems like stupid remark and getting owned with some sigma face meme from the american psycho guy and music.

it has been the case multiple times that the YouTube algorithm makes weird connections which often lead to right wing channels being promoted. Or sometimes an entire subsection of creatores are libked with the alt right without being direct (the old atheism sphere, gaming channels are common ones too)

obinice,
@obinice@lemmy.world avatar

It could be where you live too, maybe?

I live in the UK and never see ANY right wing stuff, even though we have our fair share of xenophobic nutjobs (some of them are even running our government’s immigration department currently).

But I’ve heard that some places in the USA may be extremely polarised regionally, and so maybe that coupled with your other demographic information such as gender, age, occupation, etc, might be giving YouTube the idea that you probably fit the standard local mould for a right winger and thus might appreciate the same suggestions?

That’s been my best guess whenever I see this kinda thing mentioned, though honestly it’s just a guess! It always seems to be USA people suffering from it too :-(

Maybe the laws against hate speech, disinformation, etc, aren’t as tight there and YouTube doesn’t have as much incentive to hide that content? That seems less likely, but who knows! When I lived in the USA I saw soooo much more blatant flagrant lies in official emails, ads, media content and such, it seemed acceptable in a way it’s not here.

SaltySalamander,
@SaltySalamander@lemmy.fmhy.ml avatar

I live in the Southeastern US, never get bombarded with right-wing stuff on Youtube. My conclusion is if you’re getting hit with that content, at some point you’ve watched that sort of content. Always click the 3 dots and click Don’t Recommend Channel. It actually works, contrary to what people are saying here.

elkaki,

I really dont think location is playing a role here, Im from chile but 100% of the content I consume on youtube is in english, the shorts have also appeared in english. I doubt this content is due to location as im not close to the US nor is there particular US cultural dominance in the area (most people consume youtube in spanish, be it creatos from latin america or Spain)

stappern,

nope

CurlyWurlies4All,
@CurlyWurlies4All@prxs.site avatar

How YouTube became a perpetual Nazi machine

HubbleST,

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.

nom_nom,

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.

ImplyingImplications,

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.

Lemmylefty,
@Lemmylefty@lemmy.world avatar

I’d argue that gaming and memes are much bigger contributors.

ChaoticEntropy,
@ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk avatar

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.”

ezmack,

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

Bencodec,

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.

lustyargonian,

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.

maniajack,

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?

harmonea,
@harmonea@kbin.social avatar

(a week of bass guitar video recommendations for some reason)

Sometimes I wish youtube's algorithm were sentient so I could shake it and ask why the fuck--

For me it was a week of growing your own backyard basil. Not herb gardens, not vegetables, not self-sufficiency in general. Literally just basil. I don't even own a single plant.

NightOwl,

It can also be linked based where it recommends videos that conservatives have enjoyed that seem unrelated. Like maybe watching home improvement videos and historical war videos then the algorithm feeding new content that seems unrelated but actually is according to it, since it’s trying to expose you to new interests to expand the time you spend there.

Best I found is just not using YouTube with an account and having cookies cleared on exit, or using newpipe (Android) and freetube (desktop) which let’s you have an accountless subscription feed with Adblock and sponsorblock support.

kava,

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.

borlax,
@borlax@lemmy.borlax.com avatar

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.

NoMoreCocaine,

Not to be that guy, but you can say “don’t recommend this channel again” to YouTube. I haven’t seen Quartering, Asmogold, etc for years now. Unless you search for them.

stappern,

i keep clicking it and i keep getting served right wing propaganda, which i never watch not even on regular youtrube so IDK wtf is up with youtube.

Tartas1995,

I had the issue that I got Andrew Tate shit recommended. I said don’t recommend that, and block the uploader. Youtube still suggested me that video. Exactly that video.

stappern,

this. i made a point to click that for every slightly right wing stuff, i still get it.

PerCarita,
@PerCarita@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

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.

erogenouswarzone,
@erogenouswarzone@lemmy.ml avatar

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.

EssentialCoffee,

I think it has more to do with the stuff you watch than wanting to piss you off.

All YouTube recommends to me are videos of kpop, dog grooming, Kitten Lady, and some Friesian horse stable that went across my feed once. Oh, and some historical sewing stuff.

If they started recommended stuff that pissed me off, I wouldn’t bother going back except for direct videos linked from elsewhere.

Edit: Rereading what OP said they watch, their interests are primary interests of the right wing in the US. If they don’t train the algorithm they don’t want it, the algorithm doesn’t know that those interests don’t intersect.

marmo7ade,

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.

Who is the “they” that is going to implement what you claim? And how are they going to do that, specifically? Lemmy isn’t reddit or youtube, technically. There is no central authority. Lemmy.world can’t change how this technology works just because they might want to start injecting recommendations or ads. That’s the point of this system.

erogenouswarzone,
@erogenouswarzone@lemmy.ml avatar

Who is hosting this? Lemmy.ml, all the federated sites? With the reddit exodus there is probably a lot more activity. Who’s paying for that? That’s who they would be in this situation I think.

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