每日跟讀#679: How YouTube Radicalized Brazil

When Matheus Dominguez was 16, YouTube recommended a video that changed his life.

He was in a band in Niterói, a beach-ringed city in Brazil, and practiced guitar by watching tutorials online.

當麥修斯·多明格茲16歲時，YouTube推薦了一段改變他人生的影片。他當時在巴西濱海城市尼泰羅伊的一個樂隊裡，觀看網路講解影片練吉他。

YouTube had recently installed a powerful new artificial intelligence system that learned from user behavior and paired videos with recommendations for others. One day, it directed him to an amateur guitar teacher named Nando Moura, who had gained a wide following by posting videos about heavy metal, video games and, most of all, politics.

當時YouTube剛安裝了一個強大的新人工智慧系統，可從用戶行為學習並跟推薦給他人的影片配對。某一天，它將多明格茲引導至名叫南多·莫拉的業餘吉他老師，此人上傳有關重金屬、電玩遊戲，特別是政治的影片，從而擁有廣大追隨者。

In colorful and paranoid far-right rants, Moura accused feminists, teachers and mainstream politicians of waging vast conspiracies. Dominguez was hooked.

莫拉用生動、偏執的極右翼言論指責女性主義者、教師及政客大搞陰謀，這讓多明格茲著了迷。

As his time on the site grew, YouTube recommended videos from other far-right figures. One was a lawmaker named Jair Bolsonaro, then a marginal figure in national politics — but a star in YouTube’s far-right community in Brazil, where the platform has become more widely watched than all but one TV channel.

隨著他使用該網站的時間愈來愈長，YouTube推薦了其他極右派人物的影片，其中一位是名叫波索納洛的國會議員，當時他僅是全國政壇的邊緣人物，但在巴西YouTube的極右派社群中卻是個明星，而巴西所有電視頻道只有一個收視率超過這個平台。

Last year, he became President Bolsonaro.

去年，波索納洛成了總統。

“YouTube became the social media platform of the Brazilian right,” said Dominguez, now a lanky 17-year-old who says he, too, plans to seek political office.

現年17歲、身材瘦高的多明格茲說：「YouTube成了巴西右派的社群媒體平台」，他表示自己也打算從政。

Members of the nation’s newly empowered far right — from grassroots organizers to federal lawmakers — say their movement would not have risen so far, so fast, without YouTube’s recommendation engine.

從基層組織者到聯邦國會議員，該國新近獲得權力的極右派成員表示，如果沒有YouTube的推薦工具，他們的運動不會崛起得這麼高、這麼快。

New research has found they may be correct. YouTube’s search and recommendation system appears to have systematically diverted users to far-right and conspiracy channels in Brazil.

新研究發現他們可能說對了。YouTube的搜索和推薦系統似乎有系統地將用戶轉移到巴西的極右派和陰謀頻道。

A New York Times investigation in Brazil found that, time and again, videos promoted by the site have upended central elements of daily life.

紐約時報在巴西的一項調查發現，該網站推廣的影片一再顛覆日常生活的核心要素。

Teachers describe classrooms made unruly by students who quote from YouTube conspiracy videos or who, encouraged by right-wing YouTube stars, secretly record their instructors.

教師們表示，學生引用YouTube陰謀論影片的內容，或者受右派YouTube明星鼓勵偷錄自己老師，使得教室秩序失控。

Some parents look to “Dr. YouTube” for health advice but get dangerous misinformation instead, hampering the nation’s efforts to fight diseases like Zika. Viral videos have incited death threats against public health advocates.

一些家長向「YouTube醫生」尋求健康建議，卻得到危險的錯誤資訊，阻礙了全國對抗茲卡病毒等疾病的行動。網路瘋傳的影片曾激起人們對公共衛生倡導者發出性命威脅。

And in politics, a wave of right-wing YouTube stars ran for office alongside Bolsonaro, some winning by historic margins. Most still use the platform, governing the world’s fourth-largest democracy through internet-honed trolling and provocation.

而在政壇，一批右派YouTube明星與波索納洛一起競選公職，其中有些人以創紀錄的差距勝出。多數人仍使用這個平台，透過在網路上磨練出來的酸言酸語跟挑釁來治理這個全球第四大的民主國家。

YouTube’s recommendation system is engineered to maximize watchtime, among other factors, the company says, but not to favor any political ideology. The system suggests what to watch next, often playing the videos automatically, in a never-ending quest to keep us glued to our screens.

YouTube表示，該公司的推薦系統是為了將觀看時間極大化等因素而設計的，並非為了支持任何政治意識形態。該系統推薦接下來可觀看的影片，經常自動播放這些影片，無止境地要讓我們緊盯螢幕。

Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/344176/web/