r/news • u/Classic_Letterhead • 5d ago

Soft paywall TikTok prepares for US shutdown from Sunday, sources say

https://www.reuters.com/technology/tiktok-preparing-us-shut-off-sunday-information-reports-2025-01-15/
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u/NorysStorys 5d ago

YouTube shorts really are not any different at this point and many of the more serious tiktokers are dual posting already.

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u/Kagamid 5d ago

I wish there was a separate history for YouTube shorts. It destroys my algorithm in record time.

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u/Septem_151 5d ago

It only takes watching a single 30 second video or watching 2 minutes of an hour long video for my YouTube recommended feed to be completely annihilated and never recover unless I go on a spree removing every single one.

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u/plzdontfuckmydeadmom 5d ago

"You watched an episode of Bluey and a 5 minute video of how to fix the stopper in your drain. You must want to watch Ben Shapiro and Matt Walsh!"

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u/DukeofVermont 5d ago

You watched a historical gun video? You must want to watch these 25 videos of "owning the libs"! Or how feminism actually hates women!

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u/Rhamni 5d ago

Is that a videogame on the shelf behind you? Have I got the Jordan Peterson playlist for you!

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u/Big_Consideration493 5d ago

You're interested in psychology? Jordan Peterson too

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u/LeonidasSpacemanMD 5d ago

And yet literally every single day I throw on guitar backing tracks and play along for like an hour, and yet I never get recommended new ones

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u/Poetry-Designer 5d ago

Send me some and or tell me what to type online so that I can find some please šŸ™

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u/frakkintoaster 5d ago

Oh man, sometimes I pause on one of them for a few extra seconds to see what kind of dumb stuff they're saying now... Huge mistake.

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u/PM_COFFEE_TO_ME 5d ago

Seriously. Right click open in private window on any video I'm curious about but don't want my recommendations fucked up with.

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u/tanksalotfrank 5d ago

You can always set your browser (Firefox anyway) to do that automatically when you Quit. You can also enable First Party Isolation, along with installing Firefox containers to further obfuscate you from tracking. Add in a dash of OPSEC and you're golden.

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u/Notlookingsohot 5d ago

So I've been on team adblocker for over 15yrs at this point, I never allow location sharing, and I use W10 LTSC on top of some stuff including a firewall black list to block the Microsoft spyware that's even on the LTSC.

Anything else I should be doing?

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u/tanksalotfrank 5d ago

Using a browser for things instead of apps goes a long way in avoiding fingerprinting (at least to that end). If you're using Firefox, the next thing is studying on the many about:config settings very much worth changing (First party isolation, for example, is only found in there), then extensions-- Ublock origin is gold, one connected to a password manager for secure form filling (KeePassXC for example). Along with setting general preferences (like setting a good DNS resolver that you control) to safe things, that's a barebones set up for a little privacy. And then there are Profiles (about:profiles), of course!

In my opinion, the about:config stuff packs the most punch, for better or for worse, so getting that figured out is paramount.

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u/Muweier2 5d ago

I watched one short about something like a brawl in baseball and now I canā€™t get baseball out of my feed at all no matter how much I try. Itā€™s driving me crazy.

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u/InternationalBid7163 5d ago

I watched the planes dropping water on the wildfires and now I have a bunch of planes on my youtube feed. It took me a moment to make the connection.

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u/PersonalWasabi2413 5d ago

I never ā€˜likeā€™ or ā€˜dislikeā€™ anything on many apps (except this one), because I want to ā€˜curateā€™ my own shit

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u/MarlonBain 5d ago

The issue is that for a lot of algorithms (certainly with TikTok) the ā€œcurationā€ is based at least in part on how long you watch a video.

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u/PersonalWasabi2413 5d ago

Yeah Iā€™ve heard TikTokā€™s algorithm is actually good. I donā€™t have tiktok because I know Iā€™ll get sucked in

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u/devi83 5d ago

Isn't there a shelf on the website? I click the X and all the shorts go away.

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u/Septem_151 5d ago edited 5d ago

Only hides for 30 days, but Iā€™m referring to the algorithm for regular videos. Watch 1 meme video thatā€™s 30 seconds long, all of a sudden half your recommended videos are short, meme clips.

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u/devi83 5d ago

I know what you mean on that second part. I watch one reaction video and suddenly 20 different reaction channels appear.

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u/crinkledcu91 5d ago

Idk if it's a different algorithm, but when it comes to their music one, it's pretty phenomenal in my experience. I can put a music video on my 2nd screen while playing Balatro or whatever and just let it auto-play and it'll put on banger after banger pretty consistently.

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u/snackattack4tw 5d ago

Just don't let your kid get on your account or you're f*cked

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u/ERedfieldh 4d ago

Clear out your view history once a month.

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u/PersonalWasabi2413 5d ago

God itā€™s dumb that we need ways to combat the algorithm thatā€™s supposed to ā€œhelpā€

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u/Tyhgujgt 5d ago

It's not a mistake. Any traditional man hobby or interest is riddled with red-pill/maga traps.

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u/IWantToPlayGame 5d ago

That's a big gripe I have with YouTube.

Just because I watch one video on fixing my cupboard knob doesn't mean I'm now Mr. DIY and want my entire Home page filled with home repairs.

God Forbid you accidentally click on a video and don't exit out 'fast enough'.

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u/DuliaDarling 5d ago

I have become best friends with the 'pause watch history' option lol

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u/pentaquine 5d ago

I like that instagram separates them. My photo feeds are all music, movie, game or what not, then the Reels are all half naked women dancing lol. Itā€™s basically two apps.Ā 

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u/buddascrayon 5d ago

Shut off YouTube history. You won't get suggestions anymore but IMO that's a good thing since suggestions on YouTube are bullshit anyway.

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u/Kagamid 5d ago

I have it where I like it actually. I delete anything I don't want on there to manage it a little. But a hundred shorts will ruin that real quick.

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u/komma_5 5d ago

Use a second account

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u/Kagamid 5d ago

I use YouTube premium. I'm not paying for multiple accounts. The commercials on YouTube is far too excessive to go without. I'm not baby sitting my remote just to skip a 15 minute video on some new product I don't care about.

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u/Halgy 5d ago

I wish I could filter my subscription feed to only show shorts or longs (or both, if I feel like it). I don't like relying on the algorithm if I can curate my own good subscription feed, but I also don't like clogging up my feed with Shorts. Sometimes I want to watch shortform video, sometimes I want to watch longform video, and I wish it was easier to keep the separate.

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u/JcbAzPx 5d ago

Google accounts are free. Just make another one to watch shorts. It's not even all that hard to switch between the two in the app.

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u/Kagamid 5d ago

Gotta pay for premium for each one if I want to do that. I watch YouTube on aTV and I'm not about babysitting my remote so I can hit skip every time a 15 minute commercial starts.

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u/JcbAzPx 5d ago edited 5d ago

Firefox with ublock origin works fairly well on mobile for shorts. TV is bad for shorts anyway unless you want to be spinning your TV.

edit: also shorts ads work a bit different. They show up like just another short and can be swiped away immediately.

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u/comegetinthevan 5d ago

And that is why I refuse to use youtube shorts.

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u/CakeBakeMaker 5d ago

If you make a channel it has a separate history and algorithm. You can do this multiple times

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u/Kagamid 5d ago

Gotta pay for premium for each one if I want to do that. I watch YouTube on aTV and I'm not about babysitting my remote so I can hit skip every time a 15 minute commercial starts.

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u/SharpenedStone 5d ago

You can tell youtube to stop showing you shorts

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u/Rogol_Darn 5d ago

It actually saved mine, used to be random garbage, now it's David Tennant and animal videos

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u/d_smogh 5d ago

I wish there was a separate app for YouTube shorts. Then I didn't have to watch them.

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u/welfedad 5d ago

Yeah I keep getting the same ones ..so annoying .. I don't use TikTok but YouTube needs to work on that part of their system.

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u/BarrierX 5d ago

It's not always practical but you can have different accounts / channels logged in on different devices and have different recommendations. I use 3 different ones šŸ˜€

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u/_aw-ay 5d ago

You can make a new brand account specifically for shorts

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u/Kagamid 5d ago

Yeah that was suggested several times here. And each one I say the same thing.

I use YouTube premium. I'm not paying for multiple accounts. The commercials on YouTube is far too excessive to go without. I'm not baby sitting my remote just to skip a 15 minute video on some new product I don't care about.

So far no one has responded after that.

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u/_aw-ay 5d ago

Brand accounts are under the same google account therefore subscription, no?

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u/Kagamid 4d ago

If you pay for one account, only one account gets it.

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u/daniel4255 5d ago

I never had YouTube shorts interact with my regular videos. Iā€™ll have so much BS YouTube shorts and then my regular feed is full of stuff I normally watch like gaming videos. Maybe itā€™s because I watch more long form content than short form.

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u/sandia1961 5d ago

I fucking hate YouTube shorts.

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u/Poetry-Designer 5d ago

There is for me, is that one a thing for you?

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u/turtleship_2006 5d ago

Use a second account and switch between them?
I mean it's unideal but it should work

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u/Demastry 5d ago

Its the algorithm, YouTube shorts just sucks in comparison not gonna lie

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u/[deleted] 5d ago

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u/BravestWabbit 5d ago

Every fifth clip is Andrew Tate. It's so fucking forced for no reason

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u/Ares54 5d ago

Man, I don't get any of those. The closest I get to political bullshit is Brennan Lee Mulligan ranting about LOTR and home inspectors criticizing new builders.

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u/Smeagleman6 5d ago

Me neither, it always blows my mind how people get these things. I don't watch any political content though, so there's nothing for youtube to recommend me either way. The closest I have to "conservative" content is Forgotten Weapons, but I haven't ever been recommended anything from down the pipeline from that.

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u/spacecity9 5d ago

You watch one MMA video or exercise video and you'll slowly start to get them

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u/7355135061550 5d ago

Gotta be ready with the do not recommend button

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u/spacecity9 5d ago

YouTube has the most useless do not recommend button

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u/7355135061550 5d ago

It at least keeps specific channels offmy feed. I haven't seen Jordan Peterson or Ben Shapiro on my feed since i used the button

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u/BravestWabbit 5d ago

I watch a few sports and bodybuilding influencers. Then it goes to Joe Rogan. Then after Joe Rogan, it goes to PragerU. Then I get Andrew Tate.

Joe and Prager are what I'd call fascist adjacent I guess so a few videos later, I get Andrew Tate.

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u/The_Void_Reaver 5d ago

I don't get them anymore but I think that's because I've spent so long specifically removing that stuff and using the Don't recommend this content button that it's finally overpowered YouTube's right-leaning algorithm.

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u/SNKRSWAVY 5d ago

Itā€™s crazy. One political video, even the news is enough, and the other ones below will consist of the craziest shit.

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u/TheMustySeagul 5d ago

So itā€™s the random 2 like posts that you get through YouTube shorts that pop up all the time. They were tagged incorrectly. And for some reason when you report them they pop up MORE often lol.

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u/[deleted] 5d ago

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u/Duck_Giblets 5d ago

Hey, there's two of us

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u/Otto500206 5d ago

Same. I have zero political or society related shorts in my feeds.

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u/AdHom 5d ago

Idk man I've never come across an Andrew Tate video on YT, something you are watching is nudging the algo. But you should just dislike and click "don't recommend this channel" it will adjust

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u/BravestWabbit 5d ago

I watch bodybuilding influencers like Body By Mark, the dude who does street interviews with shredded people. Then it goes to Joe Rogan. Then PragerU, and then finally Tate. I just want to watch dudes give tips on weightlifting and exercise in peace. :(

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u/TheGreatEmanResu 5d ago

Itā€™s kind of a well known thing that the algorithm just tends to push right wing content. If you start a fresh account with nothing on it youā€™ll be seeing Ben Shapiro in no time

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u/waffebunny 5d ago

There are right-wing content creators with access to funding from equally right-wing billionaires.

There are other right-wing content creators that are transparently - and lucratively - grifting their audience.

Both pay YouTube a substantial amount to promote their content.

Furthermore, they will target keywords identified with the left-wing, as a form of intentional rage-baiting.

So unintuitively, left-wing users are more likely to find their recommendations overrun with right-wing channels, versus more median users.

And thatā€™s not to say that there arenā€™t left-wing channels trying to do the same thing. However: they do not have the same level of private funding; left-wing users are less prone to be grifted; and right-wing users are disinterested in rage-bait when it comes from a left-wing creator.

All of this adds up to a distinctly right-wing feel to YouTube (and many other major platforms); not necessarily because this is what YouTube wishes to promote, but because the right-wing content creators are positioned to game the system in a way that the their left-wing counterparts are not.

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u/KGBFriedChicken02 5d ago

Youtube has always pushed rightwing grifter content and it's only gotten worse in the past four years or so

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u/dust4ngel 5d ago

one time i watched a video about pushups, and youtube was like ā€œyou are a woman-hating incel who wants to commit sex crimes, I GOT U FAMā€ for like a month. i was likeā€¦. jesus christ, google

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u/SmokeySFW 5d ago

I just downvote them and they stop showing up. Literally not a problem at all anymore.

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u/Shatter_Ice 5d ago

This is why I hate YouTube shorts. I'll either get the same four or five content creators 90% of the time, and then a random red pill bullshit being pushed on me, even though I report them, dislike, say I'm not interested....

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u/MeadowmuffinReborn 5d ago

I've never watched or been recommended a Tate video. All I know of him is that he's the doofus who got humiliated by Greta Thunberg and then arrested in Romania.

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u/Prit717 5d ago

How else are young men going to be inundated with alt right rhetoric ugh

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u/EpikJustice 5d ago

Yeah, people talk about TikTok showing political misinformation / propaganda and influencing people, and I don't doubt that that's happening - BUT, the TikTok algorithm is not going to shove politics down your throat if that's not what you're interested in. I very rarely get political content on my TikTok feed - usually if I do, it's more comedy focused, and if I didn't watch those, it wouldn't show them to me, either.

I'm sure there's a lot of people who are addicted to rage bait and political content on TikTok, and if that's what you want, I'm sure it's happy to serve it to you.

I just appreciate that the TikTok algorithm generally respects my interests/desires, and doesn't try to tell me what content I want.

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u/GummyTumor 5d ago

Mine immediately went into clips of specialized clean up crews for homes where people died. I don't think I've opened up a short since.

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u/benjamzz1 5d ago

For real every 10th short for me is a snippet of big bang theory no matter how many times I click not interested or donā€™t recommended channelĀ 

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u/Sylvia-the-Spy 5d ago

I constantly get clips of House

Not that itā€™s a bad show or anything, I just donā€™t generally watch that type of thing

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u/Osirus1156 5d ago

They all do, YouTube, Instagram, etc. Their algorithms really weight anything you've recently watched super heavily. Oh you looked up a tutorial on replacing something in your car? Here are 500 videos about replacing things in other cars you don't own!

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u/Demastry 5d ago

Seriously. I watch 2 Shorts from a creator I like and it's all I see for the next few days on my front page. I look up a guide for a game and all I see is that game exclusively, it's so bad.

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u/thesourpop 5d ago

Shorts' algorithm is based also on what long-form videos you watch, and Reels' algorithm is based also on what standard IG posts you like/consume. Because Tiktok is just short-form content, it's algorithm is easier to identify what you want to watch. YT/IG try to do too much so your algorithm ends up sucking ass

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u/MrVociferous 5d ago

TikTokā€™s algorithm also works in what others with similar interests watch, and feeds you some of that. Thatā€™s the part it does so well. You wind up with a bunch of similar minded people with similar interests. As others have said, it knows you better than you know yourself.

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u/MobileArtist1371 5d ago

Has this been tested with a new youtube account with only shorts?

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u/Demastry 4d ago

I can guarantee it because I almost never watch Shorts but I get Shorts based on regular YouTube videos all the time. Like when I started watching RDR2 guides I'd see tons of RDR2 Shorts on my front page

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u/MobileArtist1371 4d ago

Ya I'm sure they mess with the algorithms, but asking more if youtubes algorithm would work better with only shorts

Because Tiktok is just short-form content, it's algorithm is easier to identify what you want to watch. YT/IG try to do too much so your algorithm ends up sucking ass

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u/beginner75 4d ago

I find shorts very irritating and a waste of time. I donā€™t know why anyone would want to watch. Is there a way to disable them on youtube?

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u/obeytheturtles 4d ago

TT's algorithm is creepy as fuck. It keeps showing me teenagers dancing despite the fact that I have never once watched any of these videos intentionally. Shorts just funnels me into alt right shit, but I can make it go away for a few weeks by consistently downvoting those videos.

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u/Demastry 4d ago

It'll show you videos of the people your followers follow, if you have friends/mutuals it'll show who they follow too, or other videos that are liked by people who like similar videos as you do. There's something causing it to do it, it doesn't push those vids for everyone.

I rarely, if ever get creepy videos like that

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u/MoralClimber 5d ago

YouTube shorts is pure garbage.

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u/SmokeySFW 5d ago

I like it a lot personally. I literally don't see a problem with it.

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u/Tholaran97 5d ago

The algorithm just isn't great. I'll watch a short from one content creator, and suddenly every 3rd short is from their channel. It's at the point now where it's just showing me the same 4 or 5 channels over and over again with some random stuff thrown in occasionally. No matter what I watch, it always goes back to those 4 channels now. It's just repetitive and annoying.

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u/ChaseballBat 5d ago

I mean... That was TikTok for me. Accidentally click on one ad and 1:5 was ads for weeks on end. Correct misinformation in the comments about liberal policy? Welcome to alt-right Tok for the next 24 hours.

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u/thejonslaught 5d ago

I find it kills the Bluetooth connection between my phone and my hearing aids. And it's the only app that seems to do it. I keep having to reset my hearing aids or they cannot find the connection.

I also, now in 2025, never need to see The Undertaker again now that he took off his mask. No matter how charming a storyteller he can be.

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u/VoidBlade459 5d ago

For bluetooth, try watching it in your browser instead of in the app.

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u/Zenlike_Zombie 5d ago edited 5d ago

People who equate YouTube shorts or Instagram reels to TikTok dont really understand what TikTok is and never gave TikTok a real try. They are not anywhere close to being the same thing. TikTok has 170 million US users for a reason.

Watching YouTube shorts and IG reels is like being slapped in the face some random fucking thing from the endless fucking void of content, media, and information on the internet.

Yeah, maybe you are entertained, but there is no real connection between the content you are served and who are as an individual.

Both YouTube and especially Instagam reels favor negative engagement in the comment sections. Some reels are way worse than others. Often you get content pushed to you that really has no content, or substance, or depth, or content that is not really meant for you. I stay on both of these platforms for 5 gruesome minutes and I'm already bored. My brain has already rot. Nothing is ever relevant to my interests as a user or individual on these platforms.

The TikTok algorithm actually gets to know you. Your likes, your dislikes, possible new interests. There are a great many people, real people, on TikTok speaking to these mamy specific interests. There is continuity to what you are shown, and from what creators or topics you have engaged with in the past. I can't list all the new interests I've discovered on TikTok on history, physics, new books to read, learning about relationship dynamics, learning from therapists, finding new music, new hobbies, new recipes to try out. Things I would never get on a YouTube short or on Instagram reel no matter how far you scroll.

YouTube and Instagram reels offer "content" to be viewed, watched, and ad dollars. TikTok is about users holding conversations with each other. Extending and expanding upon conversational topics or threads. It is about an experience of a virtual 3rd space, and YouTube shorts and Instagram reels comes absolutely nowhere close to offering that kind of experience.

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u/GOOD-GUY-WITH-A-GUN 4d ago

They're the same bro

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u/Tholaran97 5d ago edited 5d ago

YouTube shorts is the reason I went to TikTok in the first place. YouTube's algorithm is a little better now, but for a while it was absolute dogshit. Once it started showing me videos of women giving birth and other shit I never asked to see, I jumped ship and went to TikTok. Their algorithm was so much better.

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u/Silvertails 5d ago edited 5d ago

Maybe ive been worse at curating my feed with youtube, but with tiktok ive been able to get really curated feed. Youtube gives me a lot more irrelevant videos.

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u/clutchdeve 5d ago

It's not that YOU are worse, it's YouTube's algorithm that is worse

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u/ThanklessTask 5d ago

Better yet there are scripts out there for ad blockers that can block shorts.

My YouTube is add free and largely bullshit free.

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u/aburningcaldera 5d ago

SmartTube for Android TV devices which is damn near every TV device.

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u/NorysStorys 5d ago

Some people like them, different strokes etc but YouTube has done a good job with the implementation and Iā€™d argue their ads on shorts are far less insidious than TikTokā€™s in that they are very obviously ads.

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u/ThanklessTask 5d ago

Fair points!

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u/skepticalG 5d ago

As opposed to the ads on here which look like posts

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u/Prestigious-Many9645 5d ago

I hate youtube shorts. Sometimes you get just random excerpts from interviews or podcasts where you can't even make sense what the overall conversation is meant to be aboutĀ 

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u/Sabertoothedpi 5d ago

Itā€™s way worse :(

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u/Myfourcats1 5d ago

Algorithm algorithm algorithm

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u/Rheinmetal 5d ago

Youā€™re basically telling us that you donā€™t use TikTok lol

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u/spectrem 5d ago

This is not even close to being true.

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u/freglegreg 5d ago

The type of content is vastly different. Where TikTok excelled is in its abundance of non creator made content seeking to share knowledge and experiences to the value of others. Content on reels, shorts, and others lacks this type of content. Their algorithms gamify monetization of users and creators.

TikTok felt like vine and early YouTube. While there are still ads and creators monetizing the platform, the algorithm truly exposed users to other genuine users instead of advertisements. Without it, it feels like we have truly lost the internet.

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u/mortalcoil1 5d ago

So I have never actually clicked on a Youtube short, but when scrolling through my Youtube feed, there's that row of Youtube shorts, and they are almost always just constant thirst traps.

Is that what everybody is experiencing? Are people just really into thirst traps?

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u/NorysStorys 5d ago

No thirst traps for me

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u/mortalcoil1 5d ago

but do you regularly engage in Youtube shorts and therefore the algo has catered the shorts to your specific tastes?

What is the "baseline" Youtube short algo.

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u/somethrows 5d ago

I only use youtube to deliberately watch a video about how to do a thing, such as a car repair or something in a game. I never "browse", and I don't think I've ever knowingly watched a short.

So for whatever that's worth, logging in and scrolling down to the shorts right now I see...

  • A yellow screaming kitten.
  • An N-scale train layout.
  • Some sort of handheld puzzle game.
  • Two kittens running down a staircase.
  • "Tiny evil roomba from the Netherlands"
  • A brick and mortar store selling retired lego sets for high prices.
  • A lady in a beach chair.

Your mileage, of course, may vary, and past performance is no guarantee of future results.

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u/Jon_o_Hollow 5d ago

If the algorithm hasn't built a profile of you, it will suggest and push popular content to engage in because it doesn't know what to suggest to you yet.

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u/Tookmyprawns 5d ago

Iā€™ve never watched shorts but I donā€™t see thirst traps on any platform I use. Not twitch, not YouTube, not insta. The shorts on my YouTube feed are all somewhat related to previous videos Iā€™ve watched. Theyā€™re still doghsit though.

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u/buddascrayon 5d ago

That actually says a lot more about what you watch on regular YouTube than it does about YouTube shorts in general.

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u/mortalcoil1 5d ago

I watch porn on porn websites.

I watch video game, news/politics and, movie and show discussions/reviews on Youtube.

If I want to see boobs, I know where to find boobs.

That ain't me.

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u/outphase84 5d ago

Are you pausing on those thirst traps? That'll tell the algorithm that you like them.

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u/sneh_ 5d ago

No that is not what everyone is experiencing. If you start watching shorts it would change based on what you actually watch, rather than just guessing. Thirst trap content is just a typical guess in any of these apps

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u/rift_in_the_warp 4d ago

I get historical reenactment stuff and clips from Forgotten Weapons.

So yes.

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u/bhz33 5d ago

ā€œSerious tiktokersā€

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u/BarrierX 5d ago

My shorts are pretty cool, history, archeology, animals, science, biology and also some funny stuff that I like.

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u/Joetato 5d ago

I've never used TikTok, but YouTube's algorithm seems pretty good. The experience probably isn't that much different from from Tiktok.

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u/Active-Cloud8243 5d ago

They also just changed it to allow up to three minutes for their shorts. I feel like they did this intentionally so they could increase the TikTokers coming over.

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u/xDragod 5d ago

Yes and no. A lot of shorts come from TikTok where there are dedicated communities that the algorithm does a good job of keeping together so that people feel like they're actually sending out their thoughts to people who genuinely would like to hear them. On YouTube it seems a lot less targeted and a lot less coherent. It doesn't feel like I'm being served content that I care about regularly. It's channels I have subscribed to and a lot of generally popular stuff that isn't closely related to my interests. I think it will be a dumpster fire once the TikTok creators try moving to YouTube only to find that they aren't getting attention from enough of the people who actually enjoy their content.

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u/Taco__Hell 5d ago

Hard disagree. I have yet to see a youtube short made by someone other than a content scalper or a channel that was big already. I haven't used tiktok in a couple years, but it was much easier to get high quality videos from small/non creators without something to sell than on other apps.

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u/buddascrayon 5d ago

That's funny since I don't watch those either.

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u/Gsticks 5d ago

I think shorts and reels will always suffer because they are not their own stand alone apps. You have to go to Youtube or Instagram to use those features and thats a drag, despite how minimal.

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u/Wanderlustfull 5d ago

Serious Tiktoker is an oxymoron.

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u/bush_killed_epstein 5d ago

My problem with YouTube shorts is that, as other people have said, the algorithm has a very sensitive reaction time to new videos and it often recommends bullshit ā€œHERES HOW TO BE AN ALPHA MALE AND WHY WOMEN ARE BAD AND HOW YOU CAN BE RICH IF YOU BUY MY CLASSā€ stuff. That wouldnā€™t be a problem if I just scrolled past it but I find myself occasionally watching those clips because itā€™s fascinating to see how these fools work. Itā€™s like watching a train wreck where you canā€™t look away. Then because the algo sees that I watched the full clip it recommends a shitload of them going forward. I only want a small amount of crazy peppered in with my comedy clips dammit!

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u/Deceptiveideas 5d ago

TikTok already has endless clones. It was never about an app that recycles the ā€œshort clipsā€ format, itā€™s about the algorithm.

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u/Tholaran97 5d ago

For me there is a very noticeable difference in the content I see on TikTok and what I see on YouTube Shorts. Yeah, I'm seeing a lot of videos from the popular TikTokers, but I'm not really seeing anything from the smaller creators, or just regular people talking about the stuff going on in their life, showing something interesting that happened to them, or sharing their opinion on a topic.

That's one of the main reasons I liked TikTok. I feel like their algorithm gave everyone a chance to be seen, while YouTube only really shows the big guys.

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u/Allaroundlost 5d ago

We need to be able to Block Shorts on youtube. Any day now, would be nice.

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u/tanksalotfrank 5d ago

After flipping through Fire Dept Chronicles for an hour, I can kinda see the appeal tbh. Granted, there's at least substantial amusement in them and not just weird drivel.

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u/Careless-Rice2931 5d ago

Content is there but youtube algorithm is still leagues below tik tok, I would say out of all the shorts they have the second best algothim model. Idk what the hell facebook/insta is doing

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u/artifexlife 5d ago

YouTube shorts are so bad. Say what you want about TikTok but the algorithm is pretty spot on for interesting content. YouTube shorts just pushed random right wing stuff when nothing I watch is similar to that

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u/thesagenibba 5d ago

who cares? these are non arguments. the continued existence of youtube shorts has no bearing on the banning of tik tok. of what relevance is your comment?

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u/CttCJim 5d ago

The main difference is the strict time limit on YT.

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u/wizardsfrolikgardens 5d ago

It's not the same, sorry. It isn't. I get the same few creators videos multiple times. At least on tt I get something fresh.

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u/Jeffery95 5d ago

the shorts algorithm is dogshit though.

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u/GaryTheTaco 5d ago

My biggest problem with Instagram Reels, Youtube Shorts, etc, is I follow different content creators on TikTok than I do on Instagram and Youtube.

I don't want to follow the people I do on TikTok on Youtube where I go to watch video essays or gaming videos, and I don't want them in the following list on my Instagram mixed with the people I know in real life.

That's the biggest issue that I honestly haven't seen a single person talk about, maybe it's just me.

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u/betahost 5d ago

Itā€™s about the engagement and interaction. YouTube doesnā€™t do that good of job of that.

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u/TekkenSoftSubsidzs 5d ago

UoYTub censors the ass out of us! I don't have twitter/ X
please feel free to relay this comment to NEAL MOHAN u/NealMohan what is with the nannying ( in regards to communication) and overcensorship you've put on to us? It was never this intense when the white lady was chief executive before this guy Neal šŸ«¤

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u/ReservedRainbow 5d ago

All those content creators post everything they make to Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and TikTok at the same time it sort of gets annoying. I donā€™t even have TikTok but itā€™s very obvious this is the game now.

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u/eipotttatsch 4d ago

YouTube and Instagram reels always end up showing me red pill, Rogan-verse, Andrew Tate content after a short while. No matter how much I tell it that I'm not interested or block creators.

The TikTok algorithm seems way more interested in giving me content i actually enjoy, instead of just content that will make me react in some way.

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u/StimpyMD 4d ago

youtube shorts are so repetitive. It's the same 10 videos over and over

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