Disliking videos does little to change YouTube recommendations

September 20, 2022

People on YouTube may hit the “dislike” button for videos they watch but that will do little to alter future recommendations, according to researchers who analyzed more than 567 million videos on the social media site. Jesse McCrosky, one of the researchers on the project, called on YouTube to be more transparent about its recommendations. “Maybe we should actually respect human autonomy and dignity here, and listen to what people are telling us, instead of just stuffing down their throat whatever we think they’re going to eat,” he said.

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