This was stated by Mykola Balaban, deputy head of the Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security, during a discussion of the research “Spiral of Dependency: How YouTube Algorithms Promote Conspiracy and Propaganda” on Ukrinform.

Balaban said, “YouTube needs to move away from its small event policy and create a clear policy regarding harmful content and content containing misinformation.”

He stated that this platform must understand the threat from totalitarian or authoritarian states.

“No matter how much they close or demonize the channels, they will create videos. The state and civil society need to march as a united front and explain to the platforms that the root of the problem lies in the propaganda content of totalitarian countries. This is what we need to work on”, emphasized the expert.

Texty.org.ua journalist Serhii Mikhalkov, author of the study “Spiral of Addiction”, noted that there are many factors that determine which video will be recommended to a user on YouTube. Among the most important of these is viewing history (YouTube algorithms take into account videos that the user has previously watched and recommend similar ones); subscription; search requests; engagement (YouTube tracks what content the user interacts with: likes, comments or reshares).

Additionally, YouTube analyzes not only the user but also people with similar interests to create recommendations.

“For example, you are watching a video about tennis. Of course, other videos on this topic will be recommended to you. However, if a person with similar interests also watches videos about cooking, sooner or later you will find videos about cooking in your recommendations. Therefore, propaganda, disinformation videos “If you watch, such videos will be among the recommendations of people with similar interests to you.” explained the journalist.

According to him, an average of 15-20% of the videos recommended to a YouTube user go to the later watched videos section.

At the same time, Roman Kulchynskyi, editor-in-chief of Texty.org.ua, pointed out the problem with clickbait in headlines. “They (YouTube – ed.) pay people who create flashy headlines to attract viewers. Accordingly, there is a competition between those who want to enter the platform and make money: Who will make the more unusual and sensational headlines? So YouTube contributes to the spread of various conspiracies, distorted facts and sentimentality in society contributes,” Kulchynskyi said.

Instead, SubSub expert Eduard Sukharev, who develops YouTube channels, stated that YouTube is a reflection of the realities of our society.

“The problem of bilingualism, that is, the dominance of Russian content not only on YouTube but also on television, is a reflection of how our society works, how people absorb content,” Sukharev said. said.

205 users from Ukraine and 122 from Poland participated in the study, who installed a browser application developed by texty.org.ua editors to keep track of all YouTube recommendations. The application recorded data on the video contents watched in the period June-August 2023 and the recommendations offered by the platform based on them.

According to Ukrinform, more than 100 propaganda channels were blocked on YouTube last year.