NYT's Kevin Roose on YouTube's recommendation engine, online radicalization, and a parallel media world

Reliable Sources

CNN

News

3.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 13 June 2019

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kevin Roose and Brian Stelter discuss Roose's newest story, "The Making of a YouTube Radical." Roose, a tech columnist at The New York Times, says YouTube's algorithm is "designed to create personalized rabbit holes," sometimes with dangerous consequences. Roose talks about how YouTube evolved into a "behavioral modification AI wrapped in the skin of a video website." And he discusses the positive and negative "garbage fire" reactions to his investigation.To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	We need to talk about the ugly underbelly of YouTube.
0:07.0	The world's largest video website is being used as a breeding ground for right-wing extremists.
0:17.0	I'm Brian Stelzer and this is the Reliable Sources Podcast.
0:21.0	Our weekly chance to go in- with media leaders and newsmakers talking about how
0:26.8	the media really works.
0:28.9	And YouTube is a dominant player in both the media world and in the technology space.
0:36.8	In a moment I'll speak with Kevin Rous.
0:38.8	He's a tech columnist for the New York Times
0:41.1	who's out with an incredible investigative piece titled,
0:44.3	The Making of a YouTube Radical.
0:47.4	Roos tells the story of how YouTube led one 21-year-old man down a rabbit hole of far right-wing politics where he was again
0:56.5	his own quote here brainwashed. Now he's a vocal critic of the community that he once called home and he's also a critic of
1:07.0	Some of the ways YouTube operates
1:09.8	His name is Caleb Kane and you'll hear from him in a little bit.
1:14.0	But Ruse's story delves deep into how this online radicalization happens,
1:20.0	how the YouTube recommendation engine works or doesn't work.
1:26.0	So let's get right into it.
1:28.0	Kevin's here with me in New York.
1:30.0	Kevin, it feels like this is YouTube's turn.
1:34.0	Facebook has been scrutinized,
1:35.9	Twitter has been scrutinized.
1:37.6	I'm glad to see there's more scrutiny of YouTube right now.
	...

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