Related papers: Forgetful by Design? A Critical Audit of YouTube's…
YouTube is among the most widely-used platforms worldwide, and has seen a lot of recent academic attention. Despite its popularity and the number of studies conducted on it, much less is understood about the way in which YouTube's Data API,…
The growing popularity of short-form video content, such as YouTube Shorts, has transformed user engagement on digital platforms, raising critical questions about the role of recommendation algorithms in shaping user experiences. These…
Data generated by audits of social media websites have formed the basis of our understanding of the biases presented in algorithmic content recommendation systems. As legislators around the world are beginning to consider regulating the…
Background: Academic search engines (i.e., digital libraries and indexers) play an increasingly important role in systematic reviews however these engines do not seem to effectively support such reviews, e.g., researchers confront usability…
YouTube is central to contemporary mass media. However, the official YouTube API does not provide access to the full set of creators or creator metadata on the platform. This lack of basic visibility into the YouTube ecosystem hinders…
Article 40(12) of the Digital Services Act (DSA) requires Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) to provide vetted researchers with access to publicly accessible data. While prior work has identified shortcomings of platform-provided data…
This paper contributes to the ongoing discussions on the scholarly access to social media data, discussing a case where this access is barred despite its value for understanding and countering online disinformation and despite the absence…
Search-engine date filters are widely used to enforce pre-cutoff retrieval in retrospective evaluations of search-augmented forecasters. We show this approach is unreliable across two major search engines: auditing Google Search's before:…
Much of the delivery of University education is now by synchronous or asynchronous video. For students, one of the challenges is managing the sheer volume of such video material as video presentations of taught material are difficult to…
Following the Digital Services Act of 2023, which requires Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) and Very Large Online Search Engines (VLOSEs) to facilitate data accessibility for independent research, TikTok augmented its Research API access…
Students are increasingly using online materials to learn new subjects or to supplement their learning process in educational institutions. Issues regarding gender bias have been raised in the context of formal education and some measures…
In the attention economy, video apps employ design mechanisms like autoplay that exploit psychological vulnerabilities to maximize watch time. Consequently, many people feel a lack of agency over their app use, which is linked to negative…
YouTube Kids (YTK) is one of the most popular kids' applications used by millions of kids daily. However, various studies have highlighted concerns about the videos on the platform, like the over-presence of entertaining and commercial…
This study explores the interplay between YouTube engagement metrics and the academic impact of cited publications within video descriptions, amid declining trust in traditional journalism and increased reliance on social media for…
In light of the enduring success of music streaming services, it is noteworthy that an increasing number of users are positively gravitating toward YouTube as their preferred platform for listening to music. YouTube differs from typical…
The goal of this working paper is to summarize the main empirical evidences provided by the scientific community as regards the comparison between the two main citation based academic search engines: Google Scholar and Microsoft Academic…
With YouTube's growing importance as a news platform, its recommendation system came under increased scrutiny. Recognizing YouTube's recommendation system as a broadcaster of media, we explore the applicability of laws that require…
Video communication has been rapidly increasing over the past decade, with YouTube providing a medium where users can post, discover, share, and react to videos. There has also been an increase in the number of videos citing research…
With the 2022 US midterm elections approaching, conspiratorial claims about the 2020 presidential elections continue to threaten users' trust in the electoral process. To regulate election misinformation, YouTube introduced policies to…
Recommendations algorithms of social media platforms are often criticized for placing users in "rabbit holes" of (increasingly) ideologically biased content. Despite these concerns, prior evidence on this algorithmic radicalization is…