This Is Why You Can't See the 'Up Next' Section on YouTube

YouTube users have taken it to Twitter to express concerns over the sudden disappearance of the recommended videos section and the comment section. 

According to the YouTube developer team, the unexpected technical difficulties were caused by a bug, and as such, they should be fixed soon. So, what happened to YouTube recommended videos? 

"@YouTube What happened to the recommended videos list?? Nothing's appearing across all my devices (Android, iPhone, and Desktop)," tweeted a frustrated user. 

"No recommended videos to this, @YouTube what happened to you old man?" remarked another. 

The sudden ⁠disappearance of the Up Next and the comment section has upset many users. However, as the YouTube team revealed in a tweet, the problem was caused by a bug and as such, it should only be temporary. 

"We are currently experiencing some issues with video recommendations and you may be seeing empty recommendations on the Watch page. Our teams are aware of this issue and working on a fix. We'll share more soon!" TeamYouTube tweeted on April 10. 

A few hours later, they informed users that the complications have been resolved and that the sections have been restored to their original state. 

"Today's issue with video recommendations is fixed! You should be seeing recommended videos on the Watch page again," Team YouTube wrote a few hours later. 

The recommended videos section has been the subject of heated debates for the past few years. 

Equally disliked by creators, users, and researchers studying how information is being distributed on the platform, the feature garnered criticism for the impact it plays in shaping user behavior. 

"It isn’t inherently awful that YouTube uses AI to recommend video for you, because if the AI is well tuned it can help you get what you want. This would be amazing," AlgoTransparency founder Guillaume Chaslot told The Next Web in a previous interview. 

"But the problem is that the AI isn’t built to help you get what you want — it’s built to get you addicted to YouTube. Recommendations were designed to waste your time," he added. 

“We’ve got to realize that YouTube recommendations are toxic and it perverts civic discussion [...] Right now the incentive is to create this type of borderline content that’s very engaging, but not forbidden," Guillaume explained. 

According to Buzzfeed, the flawed algorithms automatically promote conspiracy theories, misogynistic content, and ideologically charged videos regardless of a user's profile or personal interests. 

In response to the increasingly harsh scrutiny, YouTube pledged to introduce changes to its recommendation section. 

The sudden disappearance of the recommended videos and the comments was caused by unexpected technical difficulties. It wasn't part of an upgrade, and as such, it's not reflective of the overall directives of the platform.