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A majority of YouTube videos that internet users regretted watching were recommended to them by the platform, a new report from the Mozilla Foundation has found.
Mozilla, the internet company behind the Firefox browser, released findings today from its “RegretsReporter” browser extension that it launched last year. The extension allowed users to report videos they regretted watching, and allowed for Mozilla to crowdsource information about YouTube’s recommendation algorithms.
YouTube’s recommendations have long been criticized for sending users down extremism rabbit holes.
Since it launched last year, Mozilla said 37,380 people installed RegretsReporter. In its report released today, Mozilla said it gathered information from 3,362 reports from 1,662 volunteers who were in 91 countries.
The reports were submitted between July 2020 and May 2021.
Specifically, Mozilla said 71 percent of the Regret reports came from videos that were recommended to users. Meanwhile, recommended videos were 40 percent more likely to be regretted than videos that a user searched for. Additionally, Mozilla said there were “several cases” where YouTube’s recommended videos actually violated the company’s own community guidelines.
www.dailydot.com
Here's the report:
foundation.mozilla.org
Mozilla, the internet company behind the Firefox browser, released findings today from its “RegretsReporter” browser extension that it launched last year. The extension allowed users to report videos they regretted watching, and allowed for Mozilla to crowdsource information about YouTube’s recommendation algorithms.
YouTube’s recommendations have long been criticized for sending users down extremism rabbit holes.
Since it launched last year, Mozilla said 37,380 people installed RegretsReporter. In its report released today, Mozilla said it gathered information from 3,362 reports from 1,662 volunteers who were in 91 countries.
The reports were submitted between July 2020 and May 2021.
Specifically, Mozilla said 71 percent of the Regret reports came from videos that were recommended to users. Meanwhile, recommended videos were 40 percent more likely to be regretted than videos that a user searched for. Additionally, Mozilla said there were “several cases” where YouTube’s recommended videos actually violated the company’s own community guidelines.
Most videos people regretted watching on YouTube came from its recommendation algorithm
Mozilla said 71 percent of 'regret reports' came from recommended videos.
www.dailydot.com
Here's the report:
YouTube Regrets
Mozilla and 37,380 YouTube users conducted a study to better understand harmful YouTube recommendations. This is what we learned.
foundation.mozilla.org
