Researchers said one of the most popular videos is a nearly two-hour-long piece that details myriad reasons why, if you’re smart enough to think beyond what has been crammed into your brain by society for your whole life, the Earth is so obviously flat.įlat-Earthers might seem like a joke, but the jumps from “the Earth isn’t round” to “jet fuel can’t melt steel beams” to “science isn’t real” to “vaccines are harmful” are easy ones to make. It’s that circle that has enabled flat-Earth content to thrive. This feedback loop - where watching conspiracy videos leads to being shown more conspiracy videos, which in turn motivates creators to make more conspiracy content - was also cited by the above-mentioned ex-YouTube engineer. Speaking with attendees at the biggest annual gathering of flat-Earthers both in 20, the research team found that people who fell into the world of the flat Earth were often those who were already spending time on YouTube watching other conspiracy videos (about 9/11, for example). Researchers from Texas Tech University believe they’ve isolated YouTube videos as ground zero for the spread of flat-earth theories, The Guardian reports. And while I’m all for quashing the spread of truly wrongheaded and potentially dangerous ideas, in the case of flat-Earth indoctrination, the damage has long since been done. As in, videos peddling the idea that the Earth is not, as science has repeatedly proven, round. Among the types of videos YouTube said it would cut back on recommending was flat-Earth content. ![]() ![]() A certain ex-engineer called it a “historic victory” on Twitter and applauded the company for making such a move, possibly at a great expense to its business model. When YouTube said earlier this year that it would “ begin reducing recommendations of borderline content and content that could misinform users in harmful ways,” people praised the decision.
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