YouTube claims its crackdown on borderline content is actually working

After making changes to its recommendation algorithm in an effort to reduce the spread of “borderline” content — videos that toe the line between what’s acceptable and what violates YouTube’s terms of service — YouTube has seen a 70 percent decrease in watch time on those types of videos by non-subscribers.

More than 30 changes have been made to the way videos are recommended since January 2019, according to a new blog post from YouTube outlining how the company is trying to tackle borderline content. YouTube doesn’t say exactly what’s changed, nor does the blog post outline how many videos were being recommended before and after the changes were implemented. Instead, YouTube’s new blog post outlines how external moderators go through...

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