DISLIKE BUTTON HAS LITTLE IMPACT

YouTube’s dislike button has little impact on the videos that the platform recommends to users, according to a study released Tuesday.

Researchers from the Mozilla Foundation, an international nonprofit that works to make the internet as accessible as possible, conducted an independent audit of YouTube’s user controls based on data that more than 20,000 users provided. It concluded that people generally do not feel that YouTube’s user controls change their recommendations and that users are largely correct that the mechanisms are “inadequate” in preventing unwanted recommendations.

• Researchers found that user controls do influence what is recommended, but the effect is “negligible” and most unwanted videos still get through. Most users turn to a “trial-and-error approach” in trying to control their recommendations with tactics and behaviors like only rewatching desired videos or clearing their browser history, but reported limited success.
• User controls were often found failing, such as an instance when a user asked to stop seeing videos related to firearms but was soon after recommended gun-related content. Another asked to stop seeing videos on cryptocurrency but continued to receive those recommendations.