I'm curious about this. I watch youtube a bunch and I never see rabbit hole videos. E.g. I've never seen the videos you mentioned. Is it because I'm signed in? I don't understand why I don't get any shady videos from youtube.
They're in the shorts section, which seems to have very different recommendation results compared to the regular feed. My regular Youtube video feed is almost exclusively stuff that's similar to what I usually watch, to the point where I need to go hunting for new content. My shorts feed clearly reacts to what I watch, but I get a lot more content that's well outside my interests, including new uploads by random users and alt-right garbage. The alt-right stuff is usually a reupload by some tiny account so it seems like there's a concerted effort to keep putting it in the feeds.
Do you have a source for "... and YouTube leadership is known to lean in that direction [left-wing]"? As a socialist, I can't fathom how Google's leadership would be considered left-wing. Liberal on some social issues, sure but not left-wing.
Be glad. It depends on many factors what videos "the algorithm" thins you want to watch. Location, videos you already watched, probably gmail mail contents, purchase history from google pay, music you like... the list is endless and iam sure even for some google engineers not transparent at all. And don't you dare click on the wrong video by mistake! A simple dislike isnt gonna get you out of that hole.
Iam actually mostly fine because I barely watch youtube and ads and suggesstions are only one reason.
Yes, being signed in encourages personalization to your profile, so YouTube can suggest more things you have a high chance to watch and fewer random/general things, the latter of which rabbit holes require.
