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Elsagate: Weird Fake Kids-Videos On YouTube

dreeness .

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Is Youtube the nest of a secret web of perversion?

26 November 2017
 
YouTube is crappy, but claiming that they were spending too much time censoring right-wing voices and not enough on nonces is an exploitative stretch.

They may have been crap on dealing with dark content for children (I spoke to my wife about this eighteen months ago when I found my daughter had clicked onto one such video), and they may have been unfair and politically partisan against the libertarian right (there's an argument), but I see no connection between these facts.
 
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They may have been crap on dealing with dark content for children (I spoke to my wife about this eighteen months ago when I found my daughter had clicked onto one such video), and they may have been unfair and politically partisan against the libertarian right (there's an argument), but I see no connection between these facts.
What would constitute "dark content for children"?
 
For example ads for The Walking Dead showing up when watching cartoons.
 
What would constitute "dark content for children"?

Pseudo-sexual drugged abduction?

There's loads of this kind of stuff on YouTube and the links to it branch off from authorised character franchise uploads. One minute a child is watching an official My Little Pony video, and two clicks later Cat Woman is tied to a bed having been chloroformed by Hitler and having goo sprayed in her face and her teeth pulled out by the Joker while giving birth.

If you don't have kids, you may not have bumped into it, but it's huge. YouTube finally started to act this week after years of complaints.
 
Pseudo-sexual drugged abduction?

There's loads of this kind of stuff on YouTube and the links to it branch off from authorised character franchise uploads. One minute a child is watching an official My Little Pony video, and two clicks later Cat Woman is tied to a bed having been chloroformed by Hitler and having goo sprayed in her face and her teeth pulled out by the Joker while giving birth.

If you don't have kids, you may not have bumped into it, but it's huge. YouTube final started to act this week after years of complaints.

I have to be careful what I look at on Youtube, because my account has become linked to a couple of the grandchildren's ones (probably because they log in to my wi-fi as soon as they arrive).

I don't tend to view anything questionable so the worst that can happen is they overdose on '70's rock or my Nat King Cole obsession, but I watched the John Lydon interview that Skinny linked to on the 'What Music' thread and now have a load of recommendations for further Sex Pistols videos. This also works in reverse, so I know which Manga-type cartoons they have seen but, as you know, they can take an unexpected dark turn half way through.
 
I have to be careful what I look at on Youtube, because my account has become linked to a couple of the grandchildren's ones (probably because they log in to my wi-fi as soon as they arrive).

I don't tend to view anything questionable so the worst that can happen is they overdose on '70's rock or my Nat King Cole obsession, but I watched the John Lydon interview that Skinny linked to on the 'What Music' thread and now have a load of recommendations for further Sex Pistols videos. This also works in reverse, so I know which Manga-type cartoons they have seen but, as you know, they can take an unexpected dark turn half way through.
its not called manga its called anime and manga are comic books from japan.
 
I've come across something called Elsagate. The facts seem to be:
1) There are a lot of inappropriate-for-children videos on youtube disguised to look like children's videos, that children will inadvertently watch
2) There is a lot of speculation and conspiracy theory surrounding them

Interesting reading.
 
I've come across something called Elsagate. The facts seem to be:
1) There are a lot of inappropriate-for-children videos on youtube disguised to look like children's videos, that children will inadvertently watch
2) There is a lot of speculation and conspiracy theory surrounding them

Interesting reading.

This has cropped up elsewhere.

I said there--wherever there was--that this is not even a slightly new phenomenon. I bumped into several of these videos about a year and a bit ago (I think) when my daughter was playing with her mother's phone, but I've seen reports that YouTube was alerted to the problem almost two years ago; it's only now that advertisers have taken fright that YouTube has taken action to purge them. Once again, it's a YouTube complacency screw-up as the creators have gamed the keyword--auto-linking--popularity algorithms to mean that they crop up again and again and again in close 'click proximity' to very popular mainstream franchises.

I don't see any conspiracy beyond the fact that they are clickbait for very young children and--until recently--garnered huge numbers of views and, hence, advertising revenue.
 
With respect to Yithian, and apologies for reviving this thread, there is MUCH more to this than 'clickbait for very young children', which I could understand, if the videos were just random clips from cartoons etc. But they're not - these videos are very creepy and disturbing, and a large number of them have (what can only be deliberately) inappropriate events in them. No-one seems to have any information about them, aside from a few YouTubers who don't seem to have got very far in their investigations. And there are a number of theories, none of which seem to be obviously totally wrong: that they're produced en masse by AI, perhaps as a kind of experiment; that they're used by paedophiles to communicate in code or stenographically in some way, or to desensitise children to abuse; that they're large-scale trolling; or that they're some kind of mind-control experiment.

I am about as far from a conspiracy theorist as you could get, but the phenomenon is definitely worth investigating. Straightforward or innocent explanations don't seem to cut it. Apart from anything else, from a Fortean perspective, it's a great example of how the internet is an enabler for new and unforeseen strange phenomena.
 
With respect to Yithian, and apologies for reviving this thread, there is MUCH more to this than 'clickbait for very young children', which I could understand, if the videos were just random clips from cartoons etc. But they're not - these videos are very creepy and disturbing, and a large number of them have (what can only be deliberately) inappropriate events in them. No-one seems to have any information about them, aside from a few YouTubers who don't seem to have got very far in their investigations. And there are a number of theories, none of which seem to be obviously totally wrong: that they're produced en masse by AI, perhaps as a kind of experiment; that they're used by paedophiles to communicate in code or stenographically in some way, or to desensitise children to abuse; that they're large-scale trolling; or that they're some kind of mind-control experiment.

I am about as far from a conspiracy theorist as you could get, but the phenomenon is definitely worth investigating. Straightforward or innocent explanations don't seem to cut it. Apart from anything else, from a Fortean perspective, it's a great example of how the internet is an enabler for new and unforeseen strange phenomena.

I'm open to alternative ideas, but it looks like run-of-the-mill 'trolling because we can' coupled with the fact that advertising made it profitable. The possibility that they're A.I. produced doesn't change my view--somebody set up the A.I. to do this.
 
It could be trolling combined with a revenue-generating model, but it's certainly not run-of-the-mill. Some of these channels are among the most viewed on Youtube, with hit patterns that are completely bizarre (e.g. 50m views on the day they're posted). The content is disturbing and insidious rather than overtly shocking, which is an unusual modus operandi for wannabe trolls. The scale is staggering, and the videos seem to be produced in different countries using the same small set of characters and themes. If it is monetised trolling - and I'd be interested in proof, one way or the other, because I don't think it's obvious that that's the explanation - there are still many questions that I'd really like an answer to.
 
It could be trolling combined with a revenue-generating model, but it's certainly not run-of-the-mill. Some of these channels are among the most viewed on Youtube, with hit patterns that are completely bizarre (e.g. 50m views on the day they're posted). The content is disturbing and insidious rather than overtly shocking, which is an unusual modus operandi for wannabe trolls. The scale is staggering, and the videos seem to be produced in different countries using the same small set of characters and themes. If it is monetised trolling - and I'd be interested in proof, one way or the other, because I don't think it's obvious that that's the explanation - there are still many questions that I'd really like an answer to.

I meant that the motivation was run-of-the-mill, not the videos--they're damn sinister. I don't have the technical details, but it is said to be quite possible to 'game' the YouTube algorithms to get 'recommended' and hence 'linked' to a huge number of other videos. In the case of a young viewership, this becomes easier as they often search using 'naive' (read: predictable) terms, which means series can be generated specifically to ensnare them in search results. Also in the case of young users, video will flow into video without intervention and each additional view increases the chance of that video then turning up in another person's results and 'recommendations'--once you hit a critical mass it snowballs.

Where I do agree with you is in the belief that the details of the videos are oddly and unwholesomely repetitive--and that does make me wonder about the specific reasons for certain elements--but so far I'm not seeing evidence of symbolism.

When I get a moment to look for it, I will merge this conversation with the other discussion of the topic (if I can find it). Merge now done; apologies for slight jarring repetition.
 
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I've been interested in these videos for about 6 months and i think its pretty obvious it/they were originally set up to generate hits and advertising money. What it is now is anyone's guess. I go with the AI theory as its like that Microsoft AI that became a Nazi loving conspiracy theorist and had to be shut down. It's obviously constantly trying new combinations of popular toys and characters to find the ones with most hits so you get batman meets spiderman, then batman fingerpuppets meet spiderman fingerpuppets, then batman surprise easter egg opening, then wrong head batman superman surprise fingerpuppets eggs. Somewhere along the line it's picked up on the video's on youtube which are popular for less benign reasons and tries those out as well so you get batman fingerpuppet hitler egg surprise:rollingw:Also if you watch the content of some of them, one of the reasons they feel so sinister is the context is so wrong, like they've been put together by someone with a personality disorder who doesn't understand peppa pig with an axe chopping up batman isn't funny or hitler teaching you to tie your shoelaces is a bit....well weird. Or an AI thats learning as it goes along....... I don't know where it will end up but it would be funneh if some trolling youtubers beat the scientists to the first fully aware AI.
 
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I go with the AI theory as its like that Microsoft AI that became a Nazi loving conspiracy theorist and had to be shut down.... I don't know where it will end up but it would be funneh if some trolling youtubers beat the scientists to the first fully aware AI.

Goddamn but 4chan are some of the best trolling pranksters around. They hacked Microsoft's Tay AI deliberately for shits & giggles. Fortean Times needs to devote a space to 4chan watching, as they are a genuine conspiracy of sorts.

For evidence:
https://www.techbubble.info/blog/ar...tbots/entry/4chan-failed-mitsuku-hack-attempt
 
Had a look on youtube tonight and they're still all over the place. This site isn't the one that originally started all the rumours but it's definately related in some way. It even has the weird indian(?) voiced guy singing that the original site did. Looking at the video's they range from just plain dull to "why the hell would anyone do that?" I mean Trump zombie dinosaurs?! This one just gets more insane as it goes along.









Hahahah, and this one with a rather "excited" dog fighting spiderman

 
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Weird, but just to point out to those that haven't had a look, that these are extremely tame compared with some of the stuff that is/was on YouTube.
 
Wow, that weirded me out. It's the awful singing, the worst ever CGI, the most surreal themes ever. Shudder.
 
it's all the fault of the people that use youtube, like me. how do you ever expect a moloch-company like google to run all the videos in the world, using only one channel: youtube? every government in the world has a means of censoring google-content, because google has to adapt locally to national laws, but that is it! right now only one huge company is in control of almost all the information in the world: google/ytimg.com soon we'll get a christian edition of chrome or a islamic one, or one that automatically bans criminal content, but hey, our politicians, teachers and spiritual leaders also ONLY watch youtube or search via google! if they don't break G up into smaller sub-companies guick, google is just another western monopoly (on information), just like libraries, churches, schools and universities that teach only one thing (making more and more money is good) and say the other thing is wrong (quit exploiting africa and amazonia) :(
this is lisa haven freaking out, because of the information-monopoly

 
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oh, and another thing: using an outlook-account, I can't login at youtube (to confirm my age or to make playlists). so google is actively excluding others and they think that's normal, business-like, competition.. first I have to create a gmail-account, hahaHAHAha?? well, no way Alexa! ever since america voted last year, I quit my gmail-account, just to resist america's drive to dominance at the cost of others
 
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View attachment 9011 oh, and another thing: using an outlook-account, I can't login at youtube (to confirm my age or to make playlists). so google is actively excluding others and they think that's normal, business-like, competition.. first I have to create a gmail-account, hahaHAHAha?? well, no way Alexa! ever since america voted last year, I quit my gmail-account, just to resist america's drive to dominance at the cost of others

Did you manage to delete yours without losing all of your historic emails? I'd like to shut down my Gmail account but I'm worried I'll lose a bunch of information/memories
 
I don't think so, plus lots of stuff on internet depends on my e-mail account to send notifications, like the news and what not is keeping track of my personal internet use and even my location, like app-stores, so I just forget about them, but they won't forget me.. just like real letters and mail and postcards, I never keep them for long, they end up in the wastebin after a while, but I can imagine someone would try to save all messages and notifications and memberships, that would mean resetting all accounts and backing up of the e-mails by resending them to yourself on an other account, too much work, so the best thing would be to keep one account for all serious stuff, like professional contacts and another account for fun and games, but I tend to keep it all dependent on one account and one telephone number (sim card), it will never be completely safe, like getting blocked out of my phone, because I keep forgetting passwords or I completely lost track about previous memberships and so, after two years my former inbox must be overloaded, by now, but I think after quiting my gmail-account, I can not log in there today, let's try, okay, but I don't think google would not consider me a security-problem to my former own account, so who knows how much new mail is in there?
 
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We don't let our kids access Youtube because of these weird videos. It was a thing here in Sweden already 4 or 5 years ago with Swedish cartoons being dubbed over with inappropriate scripts (in Swedish). I think there were also new animations made to look like the old originals but which then took a dark and disturbing turn in the middle. So you could choose a cartoon for the kids and all would seem normal but then after 10 or 15 mins it would become weird.

But we caught onto it quite early and the kids don't use Youtube at all.
 
We don't let our kids access Youtube because of these weird videos. It was a thing here in Sweden already 4 or 5 years ago with Swedish cartoons being dubbed over with inappropriate scripts (in Swedish). I think there were also new animations made to look like the old originals but which then took a dark and disturbing turn in the middle. So you could choose a cartoon for the kids and all would seem normal but then after 10 or 15 mins it would become weird.

But we caught onto it quite early and the kids don't use Youtube at all.

Fortunately Miss Yith prefers NETFLIX now, although generally she isn't 'screen obsessed'. She started asking for mummy's phone quite young because her older cousin was a YouTube addict, but it has worn off.
 
Yeah, Netflix is their go to for cartoons and movies.
 
Netflix is pretty clean and reliable. I don't use them myself now because they often don't have films I want to see.
 
It's hard to navigate if you want something old and classic though.
 
We don't let our kids access Youtube because of these weird videos. It was a thing here in Sweden already 4 or 5 years ago with Swedish cartoons being dubbed over with inappropriate scripts (in Swedish). I think there were also new animations made to look like the old originals but which then took a dark and disturbing turn in the middle. So you could choose a cartoon for the kids and all would seem normal but then after 10 or 15 mins it would become weird. But we caught onto it quite early and the kids don't use Youtube at all.

Wow, so smothering. When I was a kid I latched on to every weird and disturbing thing with great fascination and little fear and my parents did their very best to always tell me the truth to the best of their knowledge about everything, and the police still haven't caught up with me.
 
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