New whistleblower allegation: YouTube manipulated ‘Federal Reserve’ search results in response to MSNBC host’s complaint

Google-owned YouTube manually adjusted search results for “Federal Reserve” after MSNBC host Chris Hayes complained about the prominence of anti-Fed videos in the top results, according to a source who worked at the tech company.

(Article by Allum Bokhari republished from Breitbart.com)

Google allegedly added the search term “Federal Reserve” to a “blacklist” file of “controversial” YouTube search queries. This caused search results for the term to be re-ranked to favor YouTube-approved mainstream media sources.

Breitbart News exclusively reported on the existence of the YouTube search blacklist in January and revealed that the term “abortion” had been added to it.

According to the same source who provided Breitbart with that information, the term “Federal Reserve” has also been on the blacklist since September of last year – and it’s all because someone at Google read a series of Chris Hayes tweets.

On September 6, 2018, Hayes took to Twitter to criticize YouTube’s search results for featuring videos he disagreed with at the top of its search results.

“My favorite example of how informationally toxic YouTube’s algorithm is this” said Hayes. “Imagine you’re a high school freshman and got a school assignment about the Federal Reserve.”

My favorite example of how informationally toxic YouTube's algorithm is this:

Imagine you're high school freshman and got a school assignment about the Federal Reserve.

— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) September 6, 2018

Hayes singled out an anti-Fed video with over 1.6 million views, entitled “Century of Enslavement.”

You watch videos on YouTube all the time, so you go home and put "Federal Reserve" into YouTube's search bar.

This is the first video that comes up (1.6 million views) https://t.co/vt6GQugkHa

— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) September 6, 2018

He also highlighted a video from the John Birch Society, a paleoconservative and anti-communist group whose work has been praised by former congressman Ron Paul, which appeared in the sidebar of “Century of Enslavement.”

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) delivered the keynote at the group’s 60th-anniversary dinner last year. Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney spoke at the society’s National Council dinner shortly before joining the administration.

Hayes called the video “conspirational quackery.”

Read more at: Breitbart.com