“We just joined Truth Social, mostly because we thought it would be very funny,” it explained. “Follow us there for truths and retruths or whatever they call them.”

  • PoliticalAgitator@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    You don't have to click on a far-right video. You can also get them when you click on a progressive video, or a medical video, or a gaming video.

    When Amazon first introduced their "People who liked X also liked Y" feature, it was hilariously easy to manipulate. You could just spam links back and forth and within a few minutes, "People who liked The King James Bible also like A Hand in the Bush: The Lost Art of Vaginal Fisting".

    It didn't take too long for them to put a stop to it but decades later, are we actually sure content suggestion algorithms are any better at withstanding manipulation?

    The far-right aren't exactly good people so I doubt they're saying "Sure, I openly celebrate mass shooters that target minorities but I draw the line at using sleazy techniques manipulate content suggestions".

    • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      My yt algorithm has turned into endless lefty stuff with the occasional funny video, and my ads are nothing but Jordan peterson and TPUSA.

      • PoliticalAgitator@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Usually the ones I see are clearly fishing for vulnerable people; a practise they put a huge amount of time, money and effort into.

        They're active in conspiracy groups because it's a good place to find unmedicated schizophrenics.

        They're active in gaming groups because it's a good place to find lonely, disaffected young men.

        They're active in anti-vax groups because they're a good place to find uneducated, paranoid people.

        They're active in fundamentalist circles because it's a good place to find bigots.

        I've found that going anywhere near any of those topics will cause the algorithm to start baiting its hook.

    • Bytemeister@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I made the mistake of watching a nice little old guy showing how to collect and refine clay. In his video, I got an ad from Epoch times about their new anti-trans smear piece, and two videos from some dude saying that a Democrat planned global food shortage was going to subdue the resistant population so here is why you need solar panels and colloidal silver. The website in the ad went to a single page that tried to sell me "free" trump gold bars that would skyrocket in value. No other links on the page worked. Needless to say, I reported all the ads, but YouTube is still running this harmful and scam-bait content.