Youchoose is an environment that allows you to experience a different recommendation system. What you need to see new content is a browser extension, available for Chrome and Firefox. Algorithms are opinionated too, especially when they try to boost ads revenues.
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Our Philosophy
Empowering users to gain control back over their recommendation feeds
What We Think
Recommendation algorithms conceal biases and judgments which influence the dissemination of ideas and culture.
Algorithms are the gatekeepers of online content
Most of the content consumed online is recommended by an algorithm. In particular, on YouTube, 70% of videos viewed are selected by one of the platform’s algorithms.
Though, there isn’t a single right way to select a handful of recommendations from billions of options. Every algorithm is opinionated, with its own objectives and trade-offs.
Recommender Systems should work for the user, not against
Algorithms are designed to maximize financial interests: generate clicks and ad-revenue. This amplifies the most sensationalist content, as the algorithm fights to hijack your attention.
While much attention is focused on moderating harmful content, we should also consider the more constructive approach: How can we promote better content, more aligned with the interest of the user?
We trust YouTubers over YouTube
We believe that content creators, who are the lifeblood of YouTube, should have the agency to recommend content from their own videos.
In most cases, their topical human expertise remains more relevant than the AI to select related content of quality.
This is also an opportunity for creators to prompt users to explore other websites, such as a news article or a blog post.
We defend algorithmic agency for the user
YouTube leverages its domination on the video sharing market to impose its algorithm, which reflect the priorities of the company.
We believe that users should be empowered to choose how and from whom they want their content to be recommended.
YouChoose will make alternative available, including ones based on collective curation and Web3 ecosystems.
Become a data-activist, and participate to the first-ever Shadow Ban Tester!
On the browser extension, you can opt-in to donate your YouTube recommendations records, in order to support public-interest research.
Indeed, YouTube's algorithm are extremely opaque, and their huge influence require independent scrutiny.
This is why we investigate and expose the behavior of these algorithms, a work made possible thanks to user data donations.
By sharing your data, you also allow us to detect when the content creators you are subscribed to are being shadow banned, and help document algorithmic censorship.