this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2025
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"Secretly tested" meaning they didn't inform users when they started doing it. Y'know, like any experimental feature is called out and explained? I hope you're just having a bad day because this is some pretty rough reading comprehension
Both, bad day, but I stand by it. It's not a secret if what you're doing is immediately in public view.
Doesn't fit the bill whatsoever:
secret /sē′krĭt/
adjective Kept hidden from knowledge or view; concealed. "a secret identity; a secret passageway." Not expressed; inward. "secret desires."
"YouTube brazenly....." Would have been a way more appropriate tagline
If you give a letter to a postman, and the recipient asks why you put "P.S: I love you" on an official piece of documentation, your first thought wouldn't be "that damn postman, opening my mail to try and enhance it".
The same is true for YouTube. People have been uploading videos for decades with them ending up on the platform the way they are uploaded, so it stands to reason that longtime users would expect this behaviour to continue, especially if there have been no Comms around any changes.
Of course Google isn't to be trusted, and anyone trusting YouTube to be ethical clearly isn't paying attention to anything. But that doesn't change the fact that youtube have intentionally hidden this change from their user base. Sure, the result was public facing, but the cause was kept secret; and that's the nuance you're overlooking.
There's definitely a middle ground somewhere between both of our perspectives. I didn't write it out, but you did bring up a great point regarding them notoriously being a shitty company to the people they rely on for income as well as the people they exploit for endcome, the creators and viewers respectively.
I mean on a very strict technicality, I suppose part of this is secretive, but I still think there's a better word out there for it. There's absolutely no way they thought they could alter many many videos and it not be caught. I don't think their intent was secretive. It has the same feel as lying by omission. Not quite a lie but could technically be classified as one.
I'm really tired, and I got to get to bed. If you're willing to continue tomorrow I'd be down.
Yeah I can appreciate that take mate. The level of audacity they would need to think something like this wouldn't be noticed is almost unimaginable. Lying by omission does feel like the best comparison to make regarding this.
Rest easy friend; there will be plenty more corporate nonsense for us all to jawdrop over tomorrow!
That you are not wrong about one bit lmao. We live in an evil cartoon
Hidden from view? No. Hidden from knowledge of it being done? Yes, therefore it was done in secret.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_Syphilis_Study