The controversy surrounding Captain Marvel continues. After Rotten Tomatoes disabled comments for unreleased movies for what was deemed by some as a way to curb the negative response to unreleased films, YouTube is apparently following suit by making some changes in its algorithm.
The Verge writer Julia Alexander found that YouTube appears to have made an adjustment to bump up videos with the News tag when people look up "Brie Larson" on the platform.
What this meant is that users will see what the site considers the more authoritative sources, inevitably putting rant or conspiracy videos involving the actress, which are a lot, at a disadvantage.
Before the change, people looking up the name of the Captain Marvel star will be met with videos about how Larson is apparently ruining the Marvel Cinematic Universe because of what is deemed to be a political agenda being pushed in the film.
Now, the top search results include the Most Searched Questions video that Larson did for Wired, Variety's video about Captain Marvel casting details, and other videos by ABC and USA Today about the filmmaking involved. I've tried it myself and found that a few of what are considered "negative" videos still manage to squeeze in, albeit if you scroll down.
Alexander said that the tweak seems to be YouTube's way of "fixing how certain search terms are qualified," a more active countermeasure to what is deemed troll behavior.
Interestingly, the change affects other search terms differently. She discovered that the "troll" videos still remain on top for searches like "Anita Sarkeesian" because of the absence of the News tag.
"My final takeaway from this is proves YouTube fundamentally understands how its site works and how certain creators game its algorithm because it's intervened and fixed it. The big step now is actively implementing that fix we see with News to the entire platform," Alexander concluded.
To be fair, it doesn't seem like a move made solely for Larson or Captain Marvel as some fans are thinking. Another Twitter user tried looking up what would be considered a divisive topic and the top search results appear to be leaning a certain direction. Either way, it doesn't sound like good news.
If you look at the Twitter thread, many didn't take YouTube's latest move well. They felt like this is another Rotten Tomatoes situation wherein opinions that do not favor Larson or Captain Marvel are being "silenced" and dismissed as trolling.
Some of them accused the platform of boosting what they described as propaganda and "feminist-style shill" videos at the expense of actual critics. Others feel like this is downright censorship, if not favoring corporate media.
On the other end of the spectrum, many people do not mind the change since they feel that the issue has gotten way out of hand.
At the end of the day, the controversies hasn't stopped Captain Marvel from making history at the box office. The film's global opening weekend was bigger than that of Black Panther. What do you think of this change?
Also Read: Clark Gregg Burns Captain Marvel Haters
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