https://techxplore.com/news/2023-08-europe-big-tech.html
Starting Friday, Europeans will see their online life change.
Europe is cracking down on Big Tech. This is what will change when you sign on::Starting Friday, Europeans will see their online life change.
TL;DR bot seems to on summer vacation now, so I had to ask Bing to summarize the article for me. Here’s what It says:
“According to an article on Tech Xplore, the European Union has introduced a new set of digital regulations called the Digital Services Act. The act aims to protect European users' privacy, transparency, and removal of harmful or illegal content. The act will affect big tech companies such as Google, Facebook, TikTok, and Amazon. The act will allow users to turn off AI-recommended videos and personalized search results. Users can choose to view content only from people they follow. Search results will be based only on the words they type. Users should find it easier to report a post, video or comment that breaks the law or violates a platform's rules so that it can be reviewed and taken down if required. Affected service providers will have until 1 January 2024 to comply with its provisions.”
Really looking forward to this. When I search videos on youtube, I get like 10 videos on the topic, then some videos from a completely unrelated topic and after that only videos from the "home" page. It's very annoying and I'm really looking forward to turn all of this off.
Especially in search results this is going to be huge. The home page on YT can be useful if you’re mindful of your clicks and steer the recommendation algorithm in a very specific direction. So there are pros and cons to this algorithm thing, so you might not want to disable it everywhere.
A few years ago I noticed that the videos on the right hand side were no longer relevant to what I was watching at the time. I found that change really annoying, so going back to the old days would be refreshing.
It probably will and will depend on whether or not it makes financial sense for the company to invest in doing things like making software that they have to write, test, and deploy, possibly in multiple versions for multiple regions. The short answer is probably not and so any changes made too confirm to European law will by default also be the case in the US.
I hope this happens to YouTube in the US.
I'm so sick and tired of the "algorithm", always suggesting the same old videos that are just barely entertaining enough to keep me watching. Let's just go back to the old days where the front page consisted of popular videos and content from people you're subscribed to. Create a separate, independent "discover" section for people who like algorithms, but don't make it the main focus.
I’m so confused
suggesting the same old videos that are just barely entertaining enough to keep me watching
Are you complaining that YouTube is bad while still continuing to watch bad videos? Because if they’re good enough to keep you watching, then they must be pretty good.
Otherwise you could just stop watching algorithmic-suggested YouTube videos?
I think the problem is that the algorithm's optimisation target is not to entertain people, but to keep them watching, which can cause you to feel bad and still click videos. In the same way other addictions work.
Exactly. You get it.
It's designed to be like a drug: amazing the first time, and maybe the next few times, but eventually it's not so fun anymore yet somehow you're now dependent on it to feel anything but miserable.
No you don't understand. Like the other person said, it's like a drug: amazing the first time, and maybe the next few times, but eventually it's not so fun anymore yet now you're dependent on it.
Your kids won't be targeted with digital ads
Hahaha, yeah right, what do you call Diana & Roma Toy's and Color's Nastya and all the other youtube channels my daughter loves, if you don't call them ads for products they receive for free?
That all sounds great. I wonder if tech companies will implement for the US as well? That’s what my work did with GDPR. We decided it was easier to do things one way, and that users would appreciate the additional options and protections. It also didn’t harm our business to do this.
I hate to admit this but every time I visit my “subscriptions” view on YT my reaction is “oh… this shit that I clicked subscribe on three years ago…”