The Algorithm Knows What You Did But It Doesn’t Know Why

By Matthew B. Harrison TALKERS, VP/Associate Publisher Harrison Media Law, Senior Partner Goodphone Communications, Executive Producer   A viewer watches the same political clip three times. The platform sees a powerful signal: this person stopped, stayed, and came back. What it cannot reliably know is whether the viewer loved the argument, hated it, was factchecking it, or was showing it to someone else in disbelief. The algorithm knows a viewer watched. It does not necessarily know why. That is why YouTube looks beyond viewing itself to other signals of appeal, engagement, and satisfaction. That distinction matters to broadcasters because digital analytics…