How YouTube Radicalized Brazil
Disclaimer: All the views expressed here are solely my own, and not those of any company or corporation.<p>Doubtless, this is an incredibly complex issue, and companies behind recommendation algorithms do have some degree of culpability for the outcomes of the algorithms they design, but I can&#x27;t help but feel that most of this is an issue with human beings more than it is with algorithmics.<p>One could presume youtube has an extreme ideological agenda and has developed its algorithms in service to that agenda, yet a more likely possibility seems to be that youtube&#x27;s algorithm simply maximizes on the content that <i>humans are drawn to engage with strongly</i> which, surprise, surprise, all of history will show you happens to be vicious, inelegant, untruthful, and ultimately disastrous ideologies.<p>The problem is not the algorithm. The problem is the masses that believe everything they watch without questioning it. The problem is not internet communities. The problem is the utter lack of localized communal structures in the modern world which leaves people defenseless in the face of efforts of galvanization toward some other, hateful view--there are no institutional anchors sheltering unwitting individuals from being duped any longer, and passions, blame, and fury still speak loudest among the figures of rhetoric. The problem is not the dissolution of truth and spread of misinformation, which as always existed. The problem is the increased efficiency with which that misinformation spreads <i>without</i> equivalent compensatory development of the <i>intellectual and critical thinking</i> armature we need to defend ourselves and keep our reason sound and free of influence.<p>You cannot call on these companies to be stewards of the world&#x27;s information, grand censors, stiflers of expression in the name of the greater good. That&#x27;s tyranny that will leave the blind blind. What we should be focusing on is how we can <i>equip citizenry</i> to better inform themselves, better guard against new means of propaganda and information, better imbue them with the critical sense to second guess the radical and largely unsupported claims they encounter on a daily basis. &quot;fake news&quot; is not a problem solved at the level of the distribution channels, which will <i>always</i> be susceptible to dastardly uses--it is a problem solved at the level of the <i>receivers</i> of the information, who need to be imbued with the critical foresight and reasoning skills required to defend themselves from manipulation.<p>Yet no one seems to focus on that.<p>Instead, the pundits and essayists of our day assume the general population will remain a dark and unenlightened herd, susceptible to every trick and puff piece, slaves to the whims of algorithmic wizardry. It&#x27;s a narrative that buys into the very power structure it seems to want to question, and instead of lauding  and promoting the dignity of human thought, the possibility of enlightenment, and a pursuit of a rational future, has abandoned all to a dark technological determinism, assuming that we&#x27;ve already made the devil&#x27;s trade between human thinking for algorithmic obedience. We&#x27;ll never solve this problem so long as we continue treating human subjects as irrational receptors of whatever ideology comes their way instead of trying to promote intellectual edification. The very title of this article reveals this bleak worldview that assumes human beings have no free will against the larger movements of technology--note that the title is not &quot;How Radical Far-Right Politicians <i>used Youtube</i> to radicalize Brazil&quot; but rather &quot;How <i>Youtube</i> radicalized Brazil&quot;<p>We live in a techno-dystopian fantasy that posits we&#x27;ve already lost our freedom to the &quot;machines&quot;.