Tuesday 20 September 2022 06:08 PM Did you fall down a YouTube rabbit hole? Good luck getting out - study shows ... trends now

If you've ever searched for something innocuous on YouTube but ended up in a rabbit hole of extreme or distasteful content, then you're familiar with the frustrations of the platform's algorithms. 

A new report from Mozilla, the nonprofit behind the Firefox browser, shows that YouTube's in-app controls - including the 'dislike' button and 'not interested' feature - are ineffective. 

Researchers used data gathered from RegretsReporter, which is its browser extension that allows people to 'donate' their recommendations data for use in studies. 

The report relied on over 567 million videos from 22,722 users in all and covered a time period from December 2021 to June 2022.

Out of the four main controls that Mozilla tested, only 'don't recommend from channel' was effective - it prevented 43 percent of unwanted recommendations. However, the 'dislike' button and 'not interested' feature were barely useful, only preventing 12 and 11 percent of unwanted suggestions. 

A number of participants who volunteered to share their opinions in a survey with Mozilla told the nonprofit that they often went to great lengths to avoid unwanted content that YouTube's algorithms kept showing them. 

At least 78.3 percent of the survey participants said they used YouTube's existing feedback tools and/or changed the platform's settings. More than one-third of participants said using YouTube's controls did not change their recommendations at all. 

'Nothing changed,' one survey participant said. 'Sometimes I would report things as misleading and spam and the next day it was back in. It almost feels like the more negative feedback I provide to their

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