How YouTube's algorithm distorts truth

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

by ddebernardy • 8 years ago

12 2 8 years ago

pulisse• 8 years ago

One nugget from TFA: More than 80% of the YouTube-recommended videos about the pope detected by his program described the Catholic leader as “evil”, “satanic”, or “the anti-Christ”. There were literally millions of videos uploaded to YouTube to satiate the algorithm’s appetite for content claiming the earth is flat. “On YouTube, fiction is outperforming reality,” Chaslot says.

ddebernardy• 8 years ago

That caught my eye too.

In some sense it's refreshing, considering how the Catholic Church may end up going down in history as the world's biggest indirect mass murderer (for John Paul II and contemporary peers promoting the idea in HIV/AIDS afflicted countries in Africa, Latin America, and Asia that condom use is not acceptable - or, in some cases like El Salvador, useful.)

But in the context of the article it's borderline comical, given how likely the videos in question have conspiracy nut jobs written all over their description.

How YouTube's algorithm distorts truth

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