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A comment on Pinterest Blocks Vaccination Searches in Move to Control the Conversation. Parent comment

Re:Pinterest Blocks Vaccination Searches in Move to Control ... by Nasrudith on Wednesday February 20, 2019 @09:41AM (#19208132)
The question is a bit philosophical at this point given the boundaries but is it truly their power?

The spread was by "Conspiracy Theorists" types look for self confirmation first to others of the type. It isn't like they could do anything to say get them to support say sensible infastructure upgrades because it wouldn't flatter their egos.

YouTube rewind got critically panned and any overt efforts for youtube tend to be poorly received.

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Re:Pinterest Blocks Vaccination Searches in Move to Control ... by pjc50 on Wednesday February 20, 2019 @09:58AM (#19208277)
The recommendation engine plays a very big role.

Fundamentally the ad companies (FGA) have a problem - their entire value proposition is that the little space at the side of the page and before the content is very valuable and has an influence on people's thoughts and decisions.

So if they then try to claim that the content itself, or the list of recommended "watch next" videos on Youtube, isn't influential, it fails the sniff test.

(Apple are mostly clear on this front. Netflix know the "watch next" is critical to their success, but they don't let people fill it with unvetted garbage.)

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