YouTube released a global commitment to reduce the spread of problematic content by actively recommending “trusted” news sources on their platform but did not disclose the criteria used to classify the reputation of channels and the list of trusted news sources favored by the company. We aim to understand the patterns of recommendation by YouTube's algorithm and identify what the platform classifies as “reliable informative sources.” In our experiment, we performed 205 tests on YouTube's recommendation system, simulating the behavior of new Brazilian users with no historical data on the platform looking for reliable news throughout the elections. We documented the Brazilian media groups that were suggested on the homepage, further analyzing the presence, position and content of Jovem Pan videos, Brazil's flagship conservative media group. We identified that, far from reigning in extremist content, YouTube systematically prioritized Jovem Pan and did not actively take down toxic Jovem Pan content. Our findings indicate that YouTube magnified the imbalance between candidates' portrayals, exposing the regulatory asymmetry between broadcast media and online platforms in the country. In spite of the opaque commercial agreements and business strategies, the platform's recommendation decisions may have an “advertising effect” of sponsorship and endorsement on users.

中文翻译：

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推荐而不是删除：巴西大选期间 YouTube 的超党派内容宣传

YouTube 发布了一项全球承诺，通过在其平台上积极推荐“可信”新闻来源来减少问题内容的传播，但没有透露用于对频道声誉进行分类的标准以及该公司青睐的可信新闻来源列表。我们的目标是了解 YouTube 算法的推荐模式，并确定该平台将哪些内容归类为“可靠的信息来源”。在我们的实验中，我们对 YouTube 的推荐系统进行了 205 次测试，模拟巴西新用户的行为，在平台上没有历史数据的情况下寻找整个选举期间的可靠新闻。我们记录了主页上推荐的巴西媒体集团，进一步分析了巴西旗舰保守媒体集团 Jovem Pan 视频的存在、地位和内容。我们发现，YouTube 不但没有控制极端主义内容，反而系统性地优先考虑 Jovem Pan，并且没有主动删除有毒的 Jovem Pan 内容。我们的研究结果表明，YouTube 放大了候选人之间的不平衡。的描述，暴露了该国广播媒体和在线平台之间的监管不对称。尽管存在不透明的商业协议和商业策略，但平台的推荐决策可能会对用户产生赞助和背书的“广告效应”。