The Movement Control Order (PKP) has forced millions of Malaysians to be confined at home with only a small number allowed out to perform frontline duties. To get rid of extreme boredom I spend time at home watching Youtube. If before the pandemic I only wasted an hour or two on YouTube every day, as a result of PKP it increased to 6-7 hours a day.
Hence Google now has more data to suggest to me videos that would not normally be watched. Sometimes the recommended video is really good. For example because of the pandemic, I was introduced to the video genre of people mowing the lawn that bushes at home, unplugging pipes in South Korea and solo adventures in Japan riding public transportation.
Before the pandemic this was the kind of video I wouldn't watch because I never knew it existed (seriously who would have thought this genre existed?) And there was no time because the video was just so long. I’m sure I’m not the only human being in the world who accepted the suggestion of weird videos throughout the past pandemic.
But with this accumulated personal data I expect YouTube to continue to provide relevant content recommendations. But instead over the last four months I’ve started receiving weird suggestions with small images (thumbnails) lying to the audience. An example I can give is as below
All thumbnails or more commonly known as thumbnails used are fake with the intent of making you tick to watch them. This is not a new tactic that only existed after YouTube became the world’s number one video streaming site. It’s a tactic that’s been around since YouTube allowed channel owners to upload their own thumbnails.
The origins of the use of these false images can be traced back to the early days of tabloid newspaper publishing in the United Kingdom. The gruesome illustrations were used by newspaper owners on Fleet Street to impress readers who then bought the akbar. There are many illustrations of Jack The Ripper’s murder that are not directly based on facts but are drawn based on fantasy because newspaper owners know by human nature. The mouth says hate but the heart says love. The sensational fake image proved successful in making people flock to buy the tabloids for sale.
Later, when this tactic became stale, it was replaced by photo manipulation in tabloids such as Weekly World News. Images of toyol, sea monsters, Big Foot, pig-headed human hybrids were produced using proto-Photoshop technology. Once again many are exposed to fake images produced decades ago until now have spread to the Internet and managed to deceive readers who are too linear.
In Malaysia, the extreme illustration techniques that are included with religious stories are used quite effectively by Mastika magazine, and Hidayah in the past. Just admit that you will not be interested in reading the story "The corpse jumps up" if the illustration is not extreme and scary as below.
The problem now is that the use of thumbnails that deceive this audience has reached an extreme level. Less than a few hours after the Foo Fighters drummer passed away, the video "this is Taylor Hawkins' grave" appeared. Obviously this video with fake pictures is used as a click bait that will be able to attract millions of views before the viewer realizes the content displayed is a mere fallacy.
For the past two weeks, the front page of YouTube has been flooded with videos of the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard court cases. Jason Momoa’s face was placed in a small image whereas he did not appear in court at all. The same thing happens every time a big gossip issue hits like Will Smith slapping Chris Rock. This tabloid tactic was indeed successful because the videos managed to get millions of views in a day.
I would like to believe the language of mumayyiz adults can distinguish between fact and fiction but based on the amount of fake messages being spread through social media now by the elderly, this belief has been undermined. More worrying is what is the impact of content like this on children who are easy to believe because they still do not realize that not everything on the Internet is true?
Two decades ago you had to buy tabloid newspapers and magazines with superstitious news to read. There is a barrier here because it has to be purchased before the mind is corrupted with garbage content such as "I am the wife of the Jin Emperor of Gunung Korbu" or "Meteor KH1000 Will Destroy the Earth In 2024".
Now open the YouTube app and the front page of the app will be dominated by content like this without having to pay. There is no "barrier to entry" into the realm of garbage except paying for cellular data.
What we learned throughout the pandemic is that fake and conspiracy news content is not something to be taken lightly. Andrew Wakefield’s study of the link between the MMR vaccine and autism became a tie pole to the global anti -vaccine movement even though it has been proven to use falsified data to get the desired results.
Because of him, diphtheria, which should have been extinct, re -emerged in Malaysia, sacrificing dozens of lives because parents refused to give the vaccine for free. I don't know how many people died during this pandemic in Malaysia because they also refused to get the Covid-19 vaccine.
To expect Google to do something to control the spread of fake news is an unwise dream. They do not have enough staff to filter every content with a focus on the world's major language content only and Bahasa Malaysia is not of high importance.
If you are a parent or guardian, please monitor what minors can access on their smartphones. Google and Apple have a variety of features built in to make it easier to monitor and block these harmful junk content.
If there is time to watch once with their unborn child like our parents did when we were growing up. The world is increasingly challenging and failure to prepare is a preparation for failure.