Memo 12: YouTube, part 2
There are many pockets of internet culture that I know of vaguely and think, well I don’t have enough knowledge on this to withhold an educated conversation on it but I know enough right now to get by. I continue on this way until I’m shaken out of it by a burst of desire to know more; for me recently, it’s all about YouTube radicalization spurred by this tweet.
My history with YouTube started late, so I don’t personally associate YouTube with my childhood. I didn’t engage with YouTube all that much more as I got older, but I easily saw some weird stuff with the “play next” recommendation feature — the Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared videos are a good example of this. I mostly only clicked on it because I had no idea about its context or genuine intention; however, once I saw it, it has stuck with me for multiple years (clearly). However, many kids do go on YouTube often and this is where problems can start.
The YouTube radicalization pipeline works something like this: a kid will be watching a harmless video that is completely normal for a kid to watch, like tips and tricks for a videogame. Waiting for them in the wings are recommended videos of debaters who focus on “normal” debaters with mildly “controversial” opinions ranging from sexist to anti-Semitic views, as YouTube’s recommendation algorithms frequently suggest alt-lite and IDW content. These personalities are so big that even you may know of them in passing: Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, Lauren Southern. These videos are an easy way for kids and their developing brains to see.
And even if one kid is referred onto a “mild” video a la Joe Rogan, YouTube will funnel that kid towards fully alt-right videos in no-time. Now, the kid is involved in a world that uses logical fallacies, whataboutitism, and conspiracy theories to protect their logic at any chance. The kid and his naive developing brain are cemented into this point of view, and he’s probably never talked to anybody about it face-to-face.
YouTube has a general inability to protect children from harmful content even, and especially, when children do not actively look up harmful content. It has been well-documented that videos pass by filters and use child-oriented search terms to slip in violent, gruesome content to unsuspecting kids. Even with wholesome children videos, there is an aura of mistrust as it is incredibly hard to figure out who is making truly harmless videos as well. There are, of course, ways for kids to get sucked into truly harmless rabbit holes on the site via absurdist memes or whatnot. But on the whole, YouTube is much more of a minefield for kids than it appears to be.
The biggest black box here is what goes into the recommendation algorithm, and why it continually allows for this to happen. The what of the algorithm is that it uses a recommendation system powered by Google Brain, the company’s top-tier AI division. The long and short of the why is that YouTube makes money by keeping users online and showing them targeted ads; to do this, they need to keep viewers engaged, so why not show them videos that others have found engaging? And what are videos that often have a lot of engagement? Videos in the alt-right sphere, even if on the fringes of severity.
There is also the take that it is not the recommendation algorithm that causes people to become alt-right, but instead, the community that forms around these videos suck people in. While this is a useful (and true) part of the situation to be aware of, it’s a chicken-or-egg problem here: the communities keep people in this world, but how do they first usually see these videos? By the recommendation algorithm, which churns out more recommendations because of the engagement from those communities.
As with most things, there is not just one side here — there are debaters at the opposite end of the spectrum, like BreadTube. BreadTube is a group of YouTubers, like the alt-right groups, but instead, they view things from a socialist/communist/anarchist/left-wing perspective. They often respond directly to claims made by alt-right videos, and they not hold back; there are hundreds of channels considered to be part of the BreadTube family. In a way, if both sides are present and debating on YouTube, there is fair representation present. A real marketplace of ideas. But how fair can it be if one is getting adtime for free? And where have we seen that before in politics?
I will be very honest, this is a large and nuanced topic that would take a whole Substack devoted on it to fully understand and analyze. But even a quick glance via partial research has shown me that there is a situation in which a form of technology is prioritizing one point of view over another to make money and, even with documented proof of such, has not made any efforts to stop it. This seems inevitable of YouTube in hindsight, as it is in the early stages of becoming a shopping site. With this knowledge, it becomes easy to understand why YouTube is not doing anything to change the radicalization pipeline. Instead of a marketplace of ideas, it is a mall of ideas, with some given ample real estate and others pushed towards the hard-to-find background.
And because there is always more to consume, here are some LINKS from this past week:
World of Tomorrow Episode 3: The Absent Destinations of David Prime is up after years and years and years and years…
How the Sitcom Mirrored, and Shaped, Your Idea of New York City. Even though I already kinda knew this, there’s nothing like reading something and sitting back and being like wow, this totally did affect me.
“Over the Garden Wall” and Vintage Postcards, which is the kind of show that does affect you but in the best way! This article dives into how vintage Halloween postcards inspired the show’s design and features, which makes me feel like I’m surrounded by a warm blanket.
This group that paid kids to make videos on bad companies revealing their harmful practices. You can’t get paid for making videos anymore, but it’s a pretty cool way to go straight to customers of large brands who are environmentally-focused (Gen Z) via TikTok and hopefully change their view.
Inside the strange new world of being a deepfake actor, which is as unsettling as it was interesting to read.