
YouTube Unleashed a Conspiracy Theory Boom. Can It Be Contained? - tysone
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/19/technology/youtube-conspiracy-stars.html
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Justsignedup
The problem faced is unprecedented soapboxing. Insane ideas have been around
as long as humanity. Usually you stand on a soapbox and preach, people ignore
you. Some might even disuade others from listening.

The problem with online opinions is that while the "opinions are like
assholes, everyone's got one" adage is true, online nobody is there to tell
you "stop watching this stupid thing". And we all know YT comments are a heap
of garbage. Also YT/Instagram comments are fully moderated by the author, so
removing all disagreements is easy. Easy to give the appearance of consensus.

And worse, once you watch one, YT's algos want to keep you watching so
suddenly you are flooded with related vides.

This leads to a problem.

~~~
DyslexicAtheist
I've found it almost impossible to remove a specific feed or ideology from my
YT recommendations. As an example I once watched Yanis Varoufakis speak at the
Oxford Union. He has appeared on panels with Slavoj Zizek who is a person I
personally can't stomach. Almost immediately after the Yanis video I had YT
recommend me to watch a panel with Zizek and Varoufakis discuss in 2016. I
didn't watch it - but since then I get Zizek constantly recommended in my
feed. Note I don't use google for searches and my YT is running pretty much
isolated in Chrome while I use Firefox/Tor for all other browsing. So google
doesn't know me and YT knows me only via my handle that is otherwise not
connected to anything (outside YT).

I have countless examples like this. YT keeps pushing me down a specific
ideological path without any action on my part. Sometimes it's great but in
those cases where it's not it's not just bad but outright dangerous. I don't
think YT has the effect on my since I'm way past a point (age) where my
behavior can easily be formed. But I can see how this sends somebody over the
cliff who is still figuring out who they are.

People like rockstar2016 (aka the MAGA killer) or the woman who went into
Youtube HQ and starting shooting the place up were probably a good examples of
how social media can radicalize those that are the most vulnerable.

EDIT: “All but one of 30 Flat Earthers interviewed said they hadn't considered
the Earth to be flat until watching videos promoting the theory on YouTube”
[https://www.engadget.com/2019/02/18/researchers-blame-
youtub...](https://www.engadget.com/2019/02/18/researchers-blame-youtube-for-
the-rise-in-flat-earthers/)

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Ambroos
There's been an uptick in conspiracy theories lately, I kinda blame the whole
"mainstream media lies" movement. Some people are starting to believe that if
almost everyone believes something, it has to be a conspiracy.

My favourite one right now is "5G is bad and will kill us all and microwave
birds". There is not a single article on 5G without the Facebook comments
being full of people shouting about the extreme dangers (even when it's just
about enabling the fake 5G on frequencies previously used for LTE). No matter
what you say, they will keep linking you vague YouTube videos by people who
claim to be doctors and misinterpreted documents from the 80s. I don't get it
at all.

~~~
duxup
It's very attractive in an unpredictable world if you're feeling vulnerable,
scared, disenfranchised. Someone out there has the answer, and oh man it's
great because someone's answer are these things I'm inclined to belive and
reinforces / validates my values.

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alexandercrohde
Our society is premised on the idea of free exchange of ideas. Some will
freely choose to think/do/believe things we find insane (some
cults/religions/jobs).

The premise of this article is that these videos are going to
brainwash/hypnotize poor fools into believing crazy things.

Newspapers need to win not be being the only voice in the room, but by being
the most relevant, clear, researched, reliable, unbiased voice in the room.

~~~
neaden
Why do you think that people will automatically listen to the most relevant,
clear, researched, reliable, unbiased voice? Lots of people end up listening
to loud, angry, biased voices that say a lot of bullshit. We see this with
things like the anti-Vax movement.

~~~
alexandercrohde
The premise of our society is that it's not the law's job to make sure
everybody only believes true things. That's a rather Orwellian idea.

~~~
neaden
1\. The law isn't involved in this, this is Youtube changing things. 2\. The
law gets involved with factual stuff all the time. You can't sell pills and
make certain claims about their health effects, you can't print a newspaper
and slander people, etc.

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xiphias2
Some of the conspiracy theories have been proven true already by Wikileaks and
Edward Snowden. Just because something is a theory doesn't mean that it's true
or false.

What we know already is that powerful organizations have secrets that they
spend big money on protecting. The difference now is that with the internet
the time for which a secret can be kept shortened significantly.

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faitswulff
I have to wonder how much of the uptick in conspiracy theories and extreme
perspectives are nation state actors attempting to sow discord. I don't think
people need help being crazy, but social and new media are the equivalent of
getting to drop millions of flyers into enemy territory for a small fee and
little to no risk.

~~~
gigabates
A meta conspiracy theory!

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duxup
In the early days of the internet I thought all this "information" being
available / soon to be available as a positive. I had no idea what the
negatives would be at that point, let alone the scale.

~~~
doktrin
I don't personally know (or know of) anyone who truly saw this coming 20+
years ago. It's a bit humbling to have been blindsided so thoroughly.

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modeless
This is like all those politicians and journalists lamenting the rise in
violence, when both war and violent crime are actually at historically low
levels. We are today in a golden age of science, where people's beliefs are on
average the most fact-based they have ever been. You wouldn't believe the
ridiculous things people believed in the past.

Yes, we have a long way to go and we should continue to seek improvement, but
don't try to tell me that things are getting worse when that's clearly not the
case. Or at least provide some evidence that's not anecdotal.

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ortusdux
Annoyingly, conspiracy theorists are great consumers. They are primed to
reject the status quo and try new things. Look at Alex Jones' merchandise. I
am not saying that his supplements are snake oil, but he definitely profits
from curating an audience that is skeptical or outright rejects modern
medicine.

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acd
My favorite YouTube is the rainbow conspiracy it appears the person is not
aware of the color spectrum.

That said filter bubbles and ai feeding us more what we “want” is probably
increasing conspiracy theories and making us less tolerant of different views.
There has been little talk of the morality of ai algorithms.

Personally I was recommended “hot” dating sites advertisement when having
relationship issues. Not what I needed but surely what most likely pays the
best. The issue is lack of ai moral or for that sake profit first. Obectivivly
the ai was right but morally not I am a parent. Ads probably should be
regulated at least you should be able to say no to ai algorithm and behavioral
psychologist maximizing profit for private companies.

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olefoo
The most relevant and interesting aspect of any conspiracy theory is the fears
it exposes. Whether its fear of environmental degradation ( Chemtrails ), fear
of loss of agency ( anti-vaccination, anything mentioning the Federal Reserve,
most political conspiracy theories ), racial identity fears ( anti-semitism,
"White Genocide", Islamophobia, etc. ).

One underappreciated aspect of the rise of conspiracy theories in the last 20
years is the fact that more people are insecure financially and have lost
trust in institutions, often justifiably so. So conspiracy theories meet less
resistance than they would have from people who are not worried about their
survival in the face of a society that seems determined to immiserate and
impoverish them if not destroy them.

Additionally we have a number of examples of institutions being subverted to
malign ends, from Wells Fargo to Wikileaks, we consistently see dishonest
behavior from organizations that claim to have the publics interest at
heart...

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equalunique
Should it be contained? The answer is no.

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qwerty456127
Just don't allow stupid and crazy people to buy guns and you won't have to
care much about what do they believe.

~~~
neaden
They still vote, or fail to vaccinate their children.

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inherentFloyd
>Mr. Dawson unspooled a series of far-fetched hypotheses. Among them: that
iPhones secretly record their owners’ every utterance

Yeah, but that's true.

~~~
coldtea
Even if not true, very far from "far fetched".

Totally plausible, and in some cases (certain malicious apps etc, on Android
or jailbroken iPhone) totally true.

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whatislovecraft
Is this really YouTube's fault? The President of the USA thinks China invented
climate change as a hoax to reduce the economic output of the USA. Who can
expect youth or anyone really to be okay in an age where the ruling parties
are themselves the ones creating and pushing the wildest conspiracies?

~~~
duxup
>Is this really YouTube's fault?

At some point aren't they responsible for hosting it?

If I were hosting it, I'd feel somewhat responsible.

~~~
whatislovecraft
All the TV news networks then as well, right? Everyone who plays video of the
Republicans spouting lies about the world, without directly commenting how
wrong it is, would be equally guilty? More guilty?

This stuff starts with Authority. on Live TV. Not some rando youtube channels.

~~~
duxup
The responsible news networks really do put some effort into verifying claims
and confronting politicians, sometimes the moment they claim it, and they do
filter who gets on...

I have no idea what you mean by "More guilty".

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bellerose
I don't think the article is even fact based to assume youtube has created a
conspiracy theory boom. I remember the dial-up age and people typically knew
some corner on the web for reading conspiracy theories to get some laughs.
When 9/11 happened there were those conspiracy documentaries and this was
before youtube was what it is today. My guess if a boom is being created. The
reason is from people being crafter at getting people absorbed in the
conspiracy theories. Maybe the health & happiness of society has decreased and
where people are now easily absorbed into conspiracy theories. Misery is a
beast that pulls people into time sink holes to escape reality.

