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by jasode 2555 days ago
>Elsagate is an example,

Yes, I was aware of Elsagate.[0] I don't play games so didn't realize every gaming video ends up with unwanted far-right and Ben Shapiro videos.

I guess I should have clarified my question. I thought gp's "unhealthy" meant Youtube's algorithm was bad for somebody like me that views mainstream non-controversial videos. (Analogy might be gp (rspeer) warning me that abestos and lead paint is actually cancerous but public doesn't know it.)

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20090157
3 comments
Reedx 2555 days ago
> I don't play games so didn't realize every gaming video ends up with unwanted far-right and Ben Shapiro videos.

They don't. That's confirmation bias at work.

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smt88 2555 days ago
It's not 100%, but I'd consider "video games" => "Ben Shapiro" to be a pretty awful recommendation system, regardless of the reasoning behind it. As far as I know, the group "video gamers" doesn't have a political lean in either direction.

I've definitely seen this with comics. I watched a few videos criticizing Avengers: Infinity War, and now I see mostly Ben Shapiro recs. It makes no sense. I never have (and never plan to) seek out political content on YouTube.

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nostrademons 2555 days ago
I watch a number of gaming videos and have never had a far-right video recommended. Don't know who Ben Shapiro is.

It could be the type of games involved, since I usually watch strategy, 4x, city-building, and military sims. I usually get history-channel documentaries or "here's how urban planning works in the real world" videos recommended, which suits me fine. Somebody whose gaming preferences involve killing Nazis in a WW2-era FPS might be more likely to get videos that have neo-Nazis suggesting we kill people.

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ilikehurdles 2555 days ago
Some of the child comments of your thread mention the nazi problem.
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jasode 2555 days ago
But that child comment didn't link Nazis to normal "video games". I assumed he just meant some folks (e.g. "1.8%" of web surfers) with the predilection for far-right videos would get more Nazi recommendations. Well yes, I would have expected the algorithm to feed more of what they seemed to like.

I do not see any Nazi far-right videos in 1.8% of my recommendations ever.

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