"The Earth and everything that's in it": February 4, 2018

Monday, February 5, 2018

People have been trying to blame the Russians, Twitter and Facebook for Trump's election. And while they surely all contributed, I think we over looked YouTube's recommendation algorithm insatiable TASTE for SENSATIONALISM and the laziness of too many people to question the veracity of what they are served via VIDEO!!

I am confessedly NOT a "YouTube" devotee, this may be why I and others, pollsters (?), missed the fore-coming doom of the most recent presidential election and the Trump Presidency.

But there are a lot of people in this world that allow YouTube's recommendation algorithm to guide them. YouTube's recommendation algorithm video PREFERS sensationalism and is easier than the proverbial broadcast news. It is constantly refreshed and available ANY time. The CONTENT is diverse, SENSATIONAL - unrestrained by any editorial review and constantly NEW. YouTube's recommendation algorithm is easier than reading newsprint or watching prime time news

People have been trying to blame the Russians, Twitter and Facebook for Trump's election. And while they surely all contributed, I think we over looked YouTube's recommendation algorithm's insatiable TASTE for SENSATIONALISM and the laziness of too many people to question the veracity of what they are served via VIDEO!!

"YouTube's recommendation algorithm was not neutral during the presidential race: it was pushing videos that were, in the main, helpful to Trump and damaging to Hillary Clinton. "It was strange," he explains to me. "Wherever you started, whether it was from a Trump search or a Clinton search, the recommendation algorithm was much more likely to push you in a pro-Trump direction.""

"This is a bit like an autopilot cafeteria in a school that has figured out children have sweet teeth, and also like fatty and salty foods," she says. "So you make a line offering such food, automatically loading the next plate as soon as the bag of chips or candy in

front of the young person has been consumed."

Once that gets normalised, however, what is fractionally more edgy or bizarre becomes, Tufekci says, novel and interesting. "So the food gets higher and higher in sugar, fat and salt – natural human cravings – while the videos recommended and auto-played by YouTube get more and more bizarre or hateful."

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/feb/02/how-youtubes-algorithm-distorts-truth

On another issue: