Very, Very Few People Are Falling Down the YouTube Rabbit Hole | The site’s crackdown on radicalization seems to have worked. But the world will never know what was happening before that::The site’s crackdown on radicalization seems to have worked. But the world will never know what was happening before that.

  • bob_wiley@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I noticed when I went to a hotel that the recommended videos for a logged out user were drastically different than my own. For example, I always found it a bit odd that Mr Beast is the #1 person on YouTube, yet I almost never get recommended his videos, but they were all over the TV in the hotel.

    I decided to try a hard reset. I deleted my entire watch history, start at 0 again. I also deleted all but maybe 5 of my subscriptions. Almost nothing changed.

        • Asymptote@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          10 months ago

          I’m hopefully wrong because it might have GDPR implications, but on the other hand they’re probably using an LLm and once theyre on the back of that tiger they cnt let go of the tail.

    • djmarcone@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      Yeah I didn’t even know who he was until a few months ago. Yet he is the top channel.

      YouTube/Google knows who you are and has a profile of you and your interests no matter what you do.

      You have to truly obfuscate your identity to escape it.

      By getting butthurt from seeing objectionable content it is still interaction and the algorithm links it to you. Your likes and dislikes are both part of your identity and they know that and use it.

      Because interaction with the website is all that matters, happy or angry they don’t care.

      In fact, they probably prefer you to be butthurt because you are more engaged.