On: YouTube comments are heavily manipulated, and I fear for our democracy

[tree_of_item]

I'm not sure what you're trying to say. That Google is editing people's comments, and that's the real problem?

I thought the article was insightful and brought up a relevant issue, and I'm not sure what boat you claim it's missed.

[micah94 → tree_of_item]

I believe the real issue is Google itself manipulating the comments for their own ends -- to make money and market to you. Bots fooling kids is not something they care about.

[aeternus → micah94]

I doubt there is any conspiracy here, Google is unlikely to be manipulating the comments themselves.

This is likely just simple incentives:

- Google uses comment count as a measure of video engagement

- Monetization is based on engagement

- Content producers are therefore incentivized to generate comments

- Controversy is great at generating comments, so content producers get creative

[tree_of_item → micah94]

Yeah that's the part I don't get: how is Google "manipulating" the comments?

And the article is not about kids; if you made it to the end you'd see implications for e.g. the November midterms in the U.S.