YouTube is part of the problem

Dakota Tebaldi

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Inasmuch as YouTube functions in many of the same ways as a social media network, with the same and perhaps even worse consequences to the targets of harassment, a discussion about it might belong in this sub.

Have a look at this thread:

 

Dakota Tebaldi

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The learning algorithms that social media companies like Facebook and YouTube use to categorize, spotlight, and deliver relevant user-created content, which many of these companies like to call AI (although it isn't, not really), will obviously reflect the personalities of the users. Without intervention and tweaking by administrators, when your site is full of racists the algorithm learns to curate content like a nazi would. When your site has enough misogynists, the algorithm will be misogynist. And when enough of your users are pedophiles, the algorithm starts liking and promoting videos of kids in skimpy swimsuits in the Recommended list next to soft-core porn.

 

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Anyone remember Tay.ai? Microsoft's AI Twitter than turned into a racist crazy AI?

Honestly, I don't know that it's just YouTube so much as algorythms in general. I guess it's sort of the idea of "the filter bubble" but basically, the over reliance on AI to generalize things automatically, which to some extent becomes a self fulfilling mechanism as people are exposed to more and more of the same thing.

Where in the past it (being entertainment/etc) would have been, maybe poorly, curated by some person, someone who would say "yeah, this is trash let's get rid of that."
 

Dakota Tebaldi

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Yeah I remember Tay, that was pretty embarrassing for Microsoft. I'm not sure it's 100% the best example, because Tay was kind of the victim of a focused attack by trolls with the aim of deliberately sabotaging the experiment; i.e. it wasn't corrupted just by being exposed to normal social media interaction. But the attack worked exactly because of this weakness of AI.
 
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Youtube will NOT stop pushing joe rogan vids at me.
 
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Dakota Tebaldi

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Youtube will NOT stop pushing joe rogan vids at me.
I finally got them to start putting "PragerU" ad-videos at the beginning of everything I tried to watch; it took flagging every single one I saw as "irrelevant" until eventually they went away. The frustrating part is, I'm not even entirely sure whether that actually worked or whether PragerU's paid "promotion period" or whatever just finally happened to end.
 

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I finally got them to start putting "PragerU" ad-videos at the beginning of everything I tried to watch; it took flagging every single one I saw as "irrelevant" until eventually they went away. The frustrating part is, I'm not even entirely sure whether that actually worked or whether PragerU's paid "promotion period" or whatever just finally happened to end.
They seem to come in waves, also I fucking hate those damn things.
 
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Kalel

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one persons trash is another mans treasure

We created these open platforms to be a beneficial to society as a whole... yet it only takes a few people to abuse it... only way to fix it would be to close the platform but that goes against it's original purpose... and these companies are at a loss of what to do.

try to keep the platform open? or go down to their level and abuse it back? do we stick to the high ground and hope they change thier ways? case they won't play fair and when we stoop to thier level they complain and fight even more... it's a no win situtation..
 

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one persons trash is another mans treasure

We created these open platforms to be a beneficial to society as a whole... yet it only takes a few people to abuse it... only way to fix it would be to close the platform but that goes against it's original purpose... and these companies are at a loss of what to do.

try to keep the platform open? or go down to their level and abuse it back? do we stick to the high ground and hope they change thier ways? case they won't play fair and when we stoop to thier level they complain and fight even more... it's a no win situtation..
Companies are going to have to not be so cheap that they don’t have enough empowered humans handling complaints and tweaking the software. They’re not stuck with inferior software that’s some kind of a black box.
 

Kalel

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Companies are going to have to not be so cheap that they don’t have enough empowered humans handling complaints and tweaking the software. They’re not stuck with inferior software that’s some kind of a black box.
Quality control is important.. but it's also the first thing that gets cut out when there are profits to be made... Dealing with AI Machines that can work 24/7 with a few employees monitoring Vs a thousand employees that only work certain times.. take vacations.. come to wrk not fully there... the amount of paperwork involved.. the extra cost associated to keep them happy... gives raises... have to be trained...

it's pretty obvious which one is more efficient..

the pace of technology is partly at fault......we are at a stage where companies need to figure out What requires a human touch vs what we can get away using AI and computers..

Money has been a driving force for a long time now behind all of our decisions.. to have AI do everything for us? people to worry more about quality then making money.. for people not to have to worry about having a job... it's unheard of...
 
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Youtube has a LOT of problems. Adpocalypse. How they treat LGBTQ content. Not doing anything to help when a creator gets an (obviously false) content claim. On and on. Almost all of the channels I follow have given up and now raise their funds largely through Patreon.
 

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The Federal Trade Commission is said to be investigating YouTube’s data collection practices and failure to protect children, according to the Post. The investigation is reported to be in its late stages and was brought about after complaints from consumer groups and privacy advocates. The investigation also follows numerous reports and investigations from publications over the last several months demonstrating how YouTube’s autoplay and recommendation feature allows predators to take advantage of content on the platform featuring children. A spokesperson for the FTC declined to comment when asked by The Verge.

Policy makers have started to respond to the investigation. Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA) called the investigation “into YouTube’s treatment of children online overdue,” in a press release issued today, adding that “the company has yet to take the necessary steps to protect its youngest users.”
 

Ayesha

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Ugh, I had no idea that kind of crap is happening on YouTube.

I agree that we need more humans reviewing things, but the problem is it takes a toll on those humans. I work for a small media company that allows user generated posts and photos. Many of us work from home and only see each other in person once a year or less. Recently at the company retreat I was in a discussion group with the lead content moderator. In my role as an editor I have the ability to flag and remove things, but I don’t have to do it very often as the moderation team takes care of most of it. But I discovered through talking to them I had no idea how much disturbing content gets posted to the site and has to be removed. Everyone feels like our community is safe but they don’t realize what it takes to get it to that point.

The company has a system that automatically flags and/or blacklist certain words, and a system for other users to flag content for review. Thankfully child exploitation content has not been a big problem, but since the site has a lot of mental health support content, they do deal with people posting images of self harm, suicide threats, and sometimes threats of violence towards others. Our lead moderator is one tough cookie, but also has the compassion needed to reach out to the people whose posts are a cry for help. She's amazing and I admire her strength, but there are not many people like her who have what it takes. I'm not sure I could do it. I can deal with nasty comments in text, but photos and video? No way.

Both of the company's current moderators used to work at Huffington Post, and said it was much worse there, but even so, it’s a tough job. My employer treats them well, but most companies don’t pay their moderators well or support their mental health needs, so it’s just creating more psychologically damaged people. I think we need to increase the consequences for people posting the most extreme kinds of content and actually make an effort to track them down. Even though this content is everywhere, I think it’s a relatively small group of people messing up things for everyone. Trolls who have nothing better to do and child abusers who need to be the focus of police stings instead of them hunting down immigrants and low-level drug offenders.
 

Dakota Tebaldi

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Yesterday, YouTube sent a letter to creators written by the CEO explaining that offensive content would be allowed on the site for the sake of "openness":

A commitment to openness is not easy. It sometimes means leaving up content that is outside the mainstream, controversial or even offensive. But I believe that hearing a broad range of perspectives ultimately makes us a stronger and more informed society, even if we disagree with some of those views.
In the wake of this letter, Alex Jones' InfoWars YouTube channel was apparently reinstated. The channel was banned again today, with YouTube citing "rules violations". This makes sense given that Alex Jones was originally kicked off YouTube for rules violations and not simply having "offensive content", which makes me wonder why on Earth they decided to reinstate him to begin with.
 
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