A recent study by the University of Arkansas and the Center for Information Technology Innovation revealed that YouTube’s algorithm may subtly steer users away from political content on its Shorts platform.
The study analyzed over 685,000 YouTube Shorts videos to investigate how the platform’s recommendation system adapts based on viewing time and content sensitivity. It found that YouTube recommends entertainment videos to users who spend significant time watching political content within Shorts.
Mert Jan Chakmak, one of the study’s authors, stated, “When you start [watching] specific political topics, YouTube tries to push you towards entertaining videos, funnier videos, especially in YouTube Shorts.” The researchers collected approximately 2,800 videos across three categories: the 2024 Taiwan election, the South China Sea conflict, and a “general” category.
They tested the recommendation system’s response to different viewing durations: 3 seconds, 15 seconds, and watching the video in its entirety, observing 50 consecutive recommendation transitions. The results showed that regardless of the initial topic or viewing duration, political content was gradually replaced by entertainment content.
The full study, available on the Cornell University arXiv preprint server, analyzed 685,842 short videos, classifying their titles and transcripts by topic, relevance, and emotional tone using the OpenAI GPT-4o model. The algorithm favored videos with a positive or neutral emotional tone and promoted high-performing shorts with more likes and views, reinforcing a bias towards popularity.
Chakmak noted that most users are likely unaware of this algorithmic behavior, stating, “Maybe some people know about it, but I’m sure most people don’t realize what the algorithm does. They just go and watch.” YouTube and Google have not issued a statement regarding the study’s findings.
Chakmak believes the shift in recommendations is not necessarily intentional censorship but a strategy to maximize user engagement and revenue. “YouTube is trying to take you out of that area or topic and push you to a more interesting topic so that it can increase engagement and bring in more money,” he said.
YouTube Shorts, launched in 2020 to compete with TikTok, features vertical videos up to 60 seconds long. As of January 2022, Shorts had over 5 trillion views, with users spending more than 1% of their waking hours watching YouTube Shorts, receiving approximately 200 billion views daily.
The study comes amid reports of YouTube expanding its video player, hiding the “Trends” page, and implementing stricter monetization requirements, potentially impacting AI content creators’ earnings on the platform.
