
Searching for "Antarctica" on YouTube returns conspiracy videos - Apocryphon
https://twitter.com/bpopken/status/1088831993234841600
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sorryforthethro
Certainly those videos are more watched than other videos on Antartica (from
shear clickbait factor alone), but also, most content on Antartica is in the
form of copy-written documentaries that legally shouldn't be on YouTube, so
there might be some bias in that direction as well.

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cjslep
I also wanted to learn about the Scottish destiny stone after watching an
episode of 10 Minute History and every single YouTube result was one about
conspiracies, quasi-religious mysticism, and a very bait-and-switch religious
film masquerading as a documentary.

I gave up and went to Wikipedia.

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throwawaysea
Unanswered detail: what videos did he previously watch from the same Internet-
facing IP address?

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matt4077
I just tried it myself, and am getting similar results. I also doubt Google
does much personalization based on IP—Addresses, considering they are often
shared, and often changing.

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jasonkester
I noticed the same thing trying to find videos for my kids by searching “moon
landings”.

Lots of alternate viewpoints represented in those search results.

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singularity2001
Searching for almost "Anything" on YouTube returns conspiracy videos!

It may well be the worlds largest stultification factory invented right after
Facebook and religions. That's not a conspiracy, just the result of human
nature and incentives.

It can also be used for tremendous enlightenment, if handled carefully.

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Gys
The question might be: why would anyone make a good, neutral, facts-based
video about, for example, Antarctica ? Making a video takes a lot of effort.
So if someone puts in that effort, there is probably a strong motivation
behind it. Very likely 'selling' a product or idea. So most 'free' videos on
youtube are probably biased in some way.

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rmbeard
Seems they want to do something about it
[https://venturebeat.com/2019/01/25/youtube-to-curb-
conspirac...](https://venturebeat.com/2019/01/25/youtube-to-curb-conspiracy-
theory-video-recommendations/)

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Theodores
Getting to Antarctica is hard. Unless you are of vast private means or have
spent a decade with a government science organisation in a G7 nation,
Argentina, Chile, China or Russia then you are not going to get there. There
is no commercial activity there and tourism doesn't happen. Even TV crews
usually go with some government science trip.

Consequently Antarctica is ripe for people saying silly things without having
a clue about what is really happening there. Add to the mix satellite imagery.
It is very easy to misread satellite imagery. Even basic things such as clouds
take a while to understand. Imagery of Antarctica is much like looking at
clouds from the ground when bored (or on drugs), the pattern matching
algorithms of the brain can see anything including pictures of Jesus Christ on
a piece of toast in a cloud.

Then there is the matter of proving that things said to exist don't exist. If
some conspiracy theory claims that the U.S. government has all these pipes and
facilities laid out deep under the Antarctic ice and 'here is the satellite
imagery to prove it' then you are in 'god does not exist/homeopathy' belief
territory. Believers won't accept that their beliefs are bullshit. That is the
problem with beliefs instead of facts.

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julienreszka
To be frank I enjoy watching conspiracy theories very much.

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julienreszka
Maybe the conspiracies are real. The icewall is real.

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s_kilk
YouTube has become the internets cloaca.

