AlgoTransparency

What can I learn?

An observatory that monitors 800+ leading information channels on YouTube — news outlets, vloggers and shows across the political spectrum — to track what the recommendation algorithm is actively surfacing. Given that YouTube's algorithm drives the majority of views on the platform, the tool aims to make its otherwise invisible influence legible.

Core insight

Recommendation is editorial: by deciding what to surface to hundreds of millions of people, an algorithm shapes public attention — and that shaping can be observed and measured from the outside rather than just asserted.

How to use it in daily work

Concrete evidence to show clients that "the algorithm decides what you see" is not a vague worry but something researchers actually track.

• Use AlgoTransparency's data to illustrate to a client how recommended content is selected, not neutral.
• Draw on it when explaining filter bubbles and why two people see very different things on the same platform.