Page 3 - Edge Issue 3

Problems with You Tube Editorial by Conrad Brisson
When compared to other outlets of entertainment and other media, YouTube looks like a dystopian wasteland run by a giant, money-hungry robot called “The Algorithm” – yet YouTube is a website I, among others, use for entertainment daily.
Recently, YouTube’s recommendations have become inaccurate for many. In an ideal world, a monolithic technology company’s recommendation robot would be tuned to enjoyable content that also has value, but a simple metric for this is incredibly difficult to make and, more importantly, not profitable. The algorithm is tuned to watch time, which in the end is no better than views or clicks – more engaging content that grabs a viewer’s attention and never lets go is what gets ad views, which make money for the business. “Engagement” does not entail real entertainment or educational value, though. In many cases, these recommendations are not content the viewer actually wants to see; it is only what will keep them watching.
The website’s copyright strike system is overwhelmingly biased in favor of the claimant (the party that claims the copyright strike). Upon receiving a claim, the creator has one week to refute it. Then, the claimant has 30 days to respond (during which they usually take their sweet time). The creator must then file an appeal, after which the claimant either does nothing or removes the claimed video. In either case, the claimant is the one who makes money from the claimed video, not the creator, even though the video may still have ads. The reason for this is that YouTube wants to stay on good terms with the huge corporations with which they are partnered – the company has more concern for the money than the user.
Much of the time, strikes are issued falsely. Much of the content that claimants strike would fall under fair use rules by any reasonable definition. The creator, however, has such a hard time resolving the strike that it’s easier to quit doing what they were doing that got them struck or fix the problem on their side – for example, all videos containing Pyrocynical’s outro were claimed by Sony after the song in it was found to sample music belonging to them. Sampling, by the way, is regarded as fair use, and the independent band that composed the song had given Pyrocynical permission to use it. Fair use is hard to regulate because the laws that
establish fair use are not specific enough to dictate what uses are or are not protected. Due to these vague laws, the ultimate deciding factor is almost always the opinion of the claimant. In a system written in favor of the claimant about a law with no concrete rulings that takes no effort to abuse, the creator always loses.
Community Guidelines is another system which is flaky in its application, because what YouTube deems “advertiser suitable” is not always clearly defined. These are easier to work around and less punishing than copyright in most cases, but creators’ liberties as a whole have been downsized – for instance, excessive profanity now classes videos as “unsuitable for advertisers” (which was not previously the case; Game Grumps is a great example) or age gating has forced creators to either quit using the terms, censor themselves, or switch to some other form of monetization.
What can be done by you, the viewer? Realistically, viewers have no power over YouTube’s recommendation algorithm other than switching from the platform entirely. If you want to stay on YouTube and help it to improve, make sure to be intentional about what you watch to tune the algorithm to what you actually enjoy (or ignore the recommended section altogether). You also do not have much agency over how a content creator gets paid through YouTube – but if a creator resorts to other ways to monetize their videos, it becomes clearer for them and easier for the viewer to offer support. If a creator whom you would like to support does run ads on their videos, do not use AdBlock. Your views will never be counted toward revenue. If you prefer to give as much money as possible, don’t skip ads until they finish their run or until you’ve been watching for 30 seconds; this counts as engagement and gives an ad view, but also makes the ad algorithm more likely to give similar ads and ads that can be skipped. If you would prefer, you can also give the ad engagement by looking at what it aims to sell. Skipping ads will not give revenue to the creator, and they make the algorithm more likely to give you unskippable ads, which guarantee revenue. To best support a creator who does not run ads on their videos, consider donating money to a Patreon if they have one, or if they choose to operate on sponsorships, support their sponsors by using their referral link or creator code.
Calendar 11/27-29
Thanksgiving Break
12/4
Blood Drive
12/4 12/17-19
Winter Chorus Midterm Exams & Orchestra
Concert