@cwebber I've been screaming at how fucking disturbing the vanilla fresh-browser session video recommendations are on that hellsite and they jeep getting worse. I only pipe yt videos into media players via yt-dlp now

@cwebber might try blocking google and YouTube from storing cookies completely

@cwebber This is my experience too. I use Invidious to watch YT videos and I have a Ublock Origin blocklist to hide all the 'recommended' videos that are all from far right shitbags and reactionary "news" channels and it results in many entries being hidden. Newpipe still doesn't have any option to hide/block results from given channels, so I still have to see that shit when on my phone.

@cwebber
I turned off my viewing history, and now YouTube stops after every 3rd item, tells me it can't figure out what my interests are, and refuses to display any more videos. Effin' enshitification and surveillance.

@cwebber ising #librewolf which keeps me logged out by default has shown me more of this in other places too

@cwebber i found the same. its now my firm belief that any platform that gives you prominent "reccomend reading" is at best highly open to abuse, at worst, profoundly toxic to society

@cwebber As the citrus emperor intended.

Peertube here I come!

@cwebber I have ubock and Privacy Badger on Firefox and I see no such thing . i have removed google as listed search options , while default is ddg

@cwebber

Interesting but is there something that they can tie to your device or location? Not that I doubt you but our experience is radically different. My wife watches a lot of foreign language movies (both dubbed and cc) on our Roku. We refuse to log in and all we get recommendations for are Hallmark movies(?).

@cwebber
alphabet inc was pro-trump already, but is it this bad !

maybe this is related to legal issues from u.s. justice department .. or is it injustice department ... trump's justice. maybe alphabet inc wants favorable treatment from u.s. government for their monopoly case.

i watch odysee, and lot of crazies are out there already. although all crazies are not pro-trump.

rhetorical question:
do you carry google account 24/7 with you ! or apple id ! or microsoft account !

@cwebber Youtube dot es is the local equivalent: non stop fascist propaganda, regardless of what the (yup, logged off) user searches for (e. g. music). Google deserves to be erased from the face of the Earth.

@cwebber if you turn off watch history, suggestions disappear. Not saying this is a final solution to the YouTube problem, but it at least keeps it out of your eyes.

@cwebber
It's almost like Google is run by insane fundie bigots

@cwebber You're not signed in? Cool, let's throw some neo-nazi garbage your way so you don't fall asleep listening to soft pop. Honestly, it's not just sad - it's terrifying 😭

@cwebber I now expect the nazi recommends every time I watch a Black youtuber

@cwebber @meganL Same, I don't have a Google account. Always 3 clicks away only from an Incel video, carefully selected by the YouTube algorithm 🙃 I hate it there.

@cwebber we had a small group reading & discussing introductory philosophy texts for a few years - kind of a blue collar/working class study group.

Every single one of us started getting inundated with targeted ads for turning point usa and prager u. These scums are deliberately trying to buy their way into being synonymous with intellectual curiosity, and it's been happening for a while now. Ad network is a social engineering tool.

@cwebber It's getting worse and worse every time I go to youtube (not logged in, cleared cookies).

https://mastodon.social/deck/@joelvanderwerf/115211185624875640

@cwebber If you don't enable history, the yts at YT will do the same thing. I leave it off. They go out of their way to tell on themselves.

@cwebber I hear the same is true of LinkedIn today.

@cwebber I've seen the same for years now. I never log in. It's possible something associated with my IP address triggers something, but it seems more likely this is just Youtube's default algorithm at work.

@cwebber Had to help my mother-in-law with a sound issue on her PC a few weeks back.

She’s 83, doesn’t use YouTube. She barely uses the Internet beyond sharing email with her friends and to attend church service via Zoom.

I popped open YouTube to find a video to play so I could test if her sound was working and the default page was wall-to-wall videos from the Canadian far-right.

@cwebber deleted YouTube off my phone. Installed new pipe. Then stopped using new pipe because there are no algorithms involved with recommendations...

@cwebber

i my case i thought it was because i looked up songs from the 1920's/1930's but if others have the same problem then it just might be unrelated to my specific search.

@cwebber we don’t know how lucky we are on Mastodon not having our lives ruled by algorithms.

@cwebber

Same.

@cwebber It's weird, because I've heard lots of people say that, but I've never been able to reproduce it myself. Just really lame slop.

This is the stuff that's being fed to people by default. With no background or specific interests specified, YouTube is providing people neo-nazi propaganda

@cwebber i, too, love too hear what too-far-right-for-BLÖD has to say about Auntie Fa bettering poor peaceful Nazi Charlie Kirk 🙄
And I'm logged in, they ought to know better

@cwebber
... but Christine, think of all the engagement the platform is generating, and so many ad views are being served. What could possibly go wrong with getting people so excited and engaged? /s