How YouTube is changing the world

Huda Khan | NT

Bengaluru: Prominent business and tech journalist Mark Bergen discussed ' How YouTube Changed the World' along with founder of design Beku Padmini Ray Murray in a podcast episode organised by Bangalore International Centre here on Wednesday.

Mark, who is also the author of the book Like, share and comment, spoke about how other social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are owned by “famous” people who have taken a few problematic steps when it comes to content moderation and violation of community guidelines but very few people are aware that YouTube on the other hand is owned by Google and that this unawareness is due the lack of mainstream knowledge of the entertainment industry.

“What would the world be like if Google wouldn't have bought YouTube?” asks Padmini Ray, who has published writing related to digital media, feminism and violence against the marginalised. In response, Mark said how YouTube was sued by Viacom due to the lack of content moderation where the platform was filled with uncensored videos with racist and fascist connotations and Google’s takeover of YouTube is the reason why they may have survived.

Discussion on the importance of YouTube having a strong search engine is also one of the reasons why it has become a multi-access platform on a global scale. They then go on to speak about the essence of the platform, the creators.

What made YouTube an addiction is the ridiculousness of the trends and the creative extents these YouTubers went to in order to acquire views. Later, they speak about the concept of popularity and competition and discuss the process of how an audience is acquired for specific types of content and that their success or failure depends on the nature of the algorithm.

The podcast ends on a competitive warning that Mark mentions, which is posed by Tik Tok being another platform that is growing and initiating better consumable content due to its nature of growth and how AI plays an important role in it.