Views of Extreme YouTube Videos Are Driven by Subscriptions

A recent research in Science Advances claims that recommendations are not what lead people to alternative and extremist YouTube video channels.

Instead, a small number of users who subscribe to these channels and click on links to their videos are mostly responsible for the platform's consumption of these channels.

The study's authors issue a warning that these results do not justify the platform. 

Subscriptions drive views of extremist videos on YouTube

According to co-author Brendan Nyhan, the James O. Freedman Presidential Professor at Dartmouth, "YouTube's algorithms may not frequently recommend alternative and extremist content to nonsubscribers.”

“They are nonetheless hosting it for free and funneling it to subscribers in ways that are of great concern."

Nyhan continues, "The issue of possibly harmful content on YouTube is genuine. 

Understanding the nature of the issues is difficult, but doing so will help us determine the best course of action.

In 2019, YouTube said that modifications to its algorithms had decreased the amount of dangerous content that users saw by 50%, with a 70% decrease in usage among non-subscribers. 

The study team set out to find out who is watching this kind of video and assess what suggestions are made by YouTube's algorithm because these reports had not been independently validated.

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