Escaping the News/Propaganda

[starfish2000]

As part of my mental health upkeep, last year I stopped watching Television News, Current Affairs & reading Newspapers. I deleted my FB account and my Twitter. As we have a smart telly I tend to watch a lot of cookery, travel & guitar/camera geek stuff on YouTube.

But it keeps suggesting weird Alt Right propaganda . Which I always flag as not interested. I sort of feel I’m struggling to escape this stuff. It’s like the algorithms know I’m white and 51 and haven’t turned to Gammon yet. But tonight I had all this stuff about “taking down woke parents”. I fail to see the link they’ve made to think I’m even vaguely interested.

Anyone else experiencing this?

 

[muscovyduck]

You might be interesting in the quitting social media thread

This sounds really frustrating, you can't really just go back to a normal TV because it's just swapping one set of propaganda for another. How does the smart TV function? Is there any way of cutting the algorithms out completely? I've heard people say with Youtube if you make your own account you can set your profile as a bookmark so you start youtube from there and get less drawn into the algorithms, but even when you search for specific things nowadays the algorithm is shoving things at you in the suggestions.

 

[NoXion]

I've generally found that with YouTube, you need to be very aggressive with your Recommended feeds to get the kind of videos you're interested in. As soon as you see a video or channel that you don't want to see in your Recommended feed, click on the three dots and select one of the "Not interested" or "Don't recommend channel" options. If you're not sure and you decide to check a video out just in case, open it in a new tab or window so that if the vid turns out to be crap, you can dislike it, close the tab/window, and then do the three dots thing I just mentioned.

Although since you say that you're using a Smart TV, I don't know if you have the same ability to tune your recommendations that you have on the desktop version of the site. Personally I would dump the Smart TV, everything I have heard about them strongly indicates that they're all fucking shite, and get a cheap laptop or tablet instead. Preferably something you can stick uBlock Origin on (i.e. no Chromebooks), so that you can further reduce your exposure to shitty corporate propaganda.

 

[petee]

But it keeps suggesting weird Alt Right propaganda . Which I always flag as not interested.

i'm in the states but yes i've been getting rightwing ads on youtube. "hello fellow patriots..." and then i hit "skip."
i wonder if by reacting at all (flagging as not interested) you're encouraging them.
i watch alot of nyc-related stuff, kitteh videos, and music like free improv and the fall (and, recently, restoration channels). why they think a cat-loving new-yorker into industrial music would be in the market for rightwingism is beyond me.

 

[tim]

i'm in the states but yes i've been getting rightwing ads on youtube. "hello fellow patriots..." and then i hit "skip."
i wonder if by reacting at all (flagging as not interested) you're encouraging them.
i watch alot of nyc-related stuff, kitteh videos, and music like free improv and the fall. why they think a cat-loving new-yorker into industrial music would be in the market for rightwingism is beyond me.

They know you better than you know yourself

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

i'm in the states but yes i've been getting rightwing ads on youtube. "hello fellow patriots..." and then i hit "skip."
i wonder if by reacting at all (flagging as not interested) you're encouraging them.
i watch alot of nyc-related stuff, kitteh videos, and music like free improv and the fall (and, recently, restoration channels). why they think a cat-loving new-yorker into industrial music would be in the market for rightwingism is beyond me.

I sometimes wonder if the rightwing ads are directed at people with more liberal profiles out of spite or some kind of manipulation, if they're directing it at anyone who has shown any interest in politics in the past, or if they're just shoving at everyone all the time and hoping a some of it will stick. Or perhaps, they just have so much money for ads that they can afford to target everyone all the time.

 

[Leafster]

I've generally found that with YouTube, you need to be very aggressive with your Recommended feeds to get the kind of videos you're interested in. As soon as you see a video or channel that you don't want to see in your Recommended feed, click on the three dots and select one of the "Not interested" or "Don't recommend channel" options. If you're not sure and you decide to check a video out just in case, open it in a new tab or window so that if the vid turns out to be crap, you can dislike it, close the tab/window, and then do the three dots thing I just mentioned.

Although since you say that you're using a Smart TV, I don't know if you have the same ability to tune your recommendations that you have on the desktop version of the site. Personally I would dump the Smart TV, everything I have heard about them strongly indicates that they're all fucking shite, and get a cheap laptop or tablet instead. Preferably something you can stick uBlock Origin on (i.e. no Chromebooks), so that you can further reduce your exposure to shitty corporate propaganda.

I tend to watch Youtube on my Smart TV and the three little dots don't seem to be there. I'm on the PC now and, thanks to your advice, I've now been able to banish the Nigel Farage videos that seem to crop of from time to time. Again, there's nothing in my subscriptions which would suggest I'd be interested but they kept appearing!

 

[Argonia]

For some reason I've got a feed from the Daily Fail that pops up stories on my Google Chrome. 50% of them are about the fucking royals.

 

[Crispy]

Subscribing to channels you like helps a lot. Then it knows what you really really like.
I have >100 subscriptions and my youtube bookmark just goes straight to them so I don't even get to see recs. unless I scroll down while playing.

 

[Orang Utan]

I only get music suggestions on mine. But I don’t watch tv on YouTube

 

[The39thStep]

On Sony smart TVs you can disable and hide the recommendations bar.

 

[8ball]

I keep getting a popup ad between YT vids by an Australian nutjob who thinks he has solved the world’s problems.

In between fucking recipe vids.

 

[MickiQ]

For some reason I've got a feed from the Daily Fail that pops up stories on my Google Chrome. 50% of them are about the fucking royals.

I get exactly the same, I'm pretty sure that Fail has a profile of its target audience and pays to have its stories served up to that target audience. The problem is giving them enough information enable you to not get the shit you don't want makes it even easier for them to target you with stuff they think you might be interested in and of course to get you to buy shit which is their ultimate aim

 

[muscovyduck]

A lot of it is this that it's not about whether someone has a positive or negative reaction from watching a video, it's whether there's any reaction at all. So people who watch these right wing videos in outrage or to mock them elsewhere on the web are still feeding into the algorithm.

 

[gentlegreen]

Facebook is a lot worse than Youtube for persisting in showing you stupid shite.
If you laugh at an advert or post rude shit in the comments you are deemed to want more of the same.

 

[Orang Utan]

Facebook is a lot worse than Youtube for persisting in showing you stupid shite.
If you laugh at an advert or post rude shit in the comments you are deemed to want more of the same.

You can block ads though or even refrain from commenting on them

 

[gentlegreen]

You can block ads though or even refrain from commenting on them

Without ads, stuff would be charged for.
I just want ones that aren't ridiculous.

 

[NoXion]

For some reason I've got a feed from the Daily Fail that pops up stories on my Google Chrome. 50% of them are about the fucking royals.

Another reason to avoid Google Chrome then. I don't know why the fuck anyone in their right mind would use a web browser literally made by an advertising company. Let alone gush over hardware made by those fuckers.

Without ads, stuff would be charged for.
I just want ones that aren't ridiculous.

Frankly if Facebook decided to change over to paid membership model, the world would be better off for it. My general feeling of mental well-being has improved dramatically since I stopped logging into Facebook. Same thing with Twitter; there's a different kind of online culture going on with Twitter that made me think for a while that it would be different to Facebook, but in the end, both of those social media giants perpetuate themselves by offering dopamine-laced hooks to keep you engaged.

 

[gentlegreen]

Frankly if Facebook decided to change over to paid membership model, the world would be better off for it. My general feeling of mental well-being has improved dramatically since I stopped logging into Facebook. Same thing with Twitter; there's a different kind of online culture going on with Twitter that made me think for a while that it would be different to Facebook, but in the end, both of those social media giants perpetuate themselves by offering dopamine-laced hooks to keep you engaged.

I find Facebook sufficiently useful and not sufficiently annoying and I sometimes find taking the piss moderately entertaining.
I find I can tune it to my needs.
Certainly more useful than religiously watching the C4 news every day.
Hopefully once in a while I learn something new or share what I know with others ..
It was quite a step for me to use my real identity online - I suppose there needs to be at least one place where I do that ...
I hold aout the faint hope of making useful contacts and friends through the medium ...

Probably patronising, but it's the less discerning punter that's the worry . ...

 

[NoXion]

I find Facebook sufficiently useful and not sufficiently annoying and I sometimes find taking the piss moderately entertaining.
I find I can tune it to my needs.
Certainly more useful than religiously watching the C4 news every day.
Hopefully once in a while I learn something new or share what I know with others ..
It was quite a step for me to use my real identity online - I suppose there needs to be at least one place where I do that ...
I hold aout the faint hope of making useful contacts and friends through the medium ...

Probably patronising, but it's the less discerning punter that's the worry . ...

Do you use anything like ad-blocking or anti-tracking extensions on your browser? If you're gonna use Facebook, you might as well be one of the more difficult ones for the ad-slingers.

 

[two sheds]

I've got Facebook Container although I'm not on Facebook. I've read that they can follow you anyway, although I'm not sure whether I'm being paranoid.