Mozilla: “Powered by 22,722 volunteers, Mozilla scrutinized YouTube to determine how much control people actually have over the platform’s recommendation algorithm. This is what we learned….Our work is the largest experimental audit of YouTube by independent researchers, powered by Mozilla’s RegretsReporter. Using RegretsReporter, an open source tool Mozilla built to study YouTube’s recommendation algorithm, we were able to independently audit the platform’s user controls.

• We combined qualitative and quantitative insights to paint a more complete picture of the effectiveness — or rather, ineffectiveness — of YouTube’s controls.
• We leveraged a massive-scale community to collect our data.
• We applied rigorous and powerful research methods including a randomized controlled experiment and a machine learning model.
• In the qualitative portion of our study, we learned that people do not feel in control of their experience on YouTube, nor do they have clear information about how to curate their recommendations. Many people take a trial-and-error approach to controlling their recommendations using YouTube’s hodgepodge of options, like “Dislike,” “Not Interested,” and other buttons. It doesn’t seem to work…”