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arXiv:2003.03318cs.CY

A Longitudinal Analysis of YouTube's Promotion of Conspiracy Videos

Marc Faddoul, Guillaume Chaslot, Hany Farid

Abstract

Conspiracy theories have flourished on social media, raising concerns that such content is fueling the spread of disinformation, supporting extremist ideologies, and in some cases, leading to violence. Under increased scrutiny and pressure from legislators and the public, YouTube announced efforts to change their recommendation algorithms so that the most egregious conspiracy videos are demoted and demonetized. To verify this claim, we have developed a classifier for automatically determining if a video is conspiratorial (e.g., the moon landing was faked, the pyramids of Giza were built by aliens, end of the world prophecies, etc.). We coupled this classifier with an emulation of YouTube's watch-next algorithm on more than a thousand popular informational channels to obtain a year-long picture of the videos actively promoted by YouTube. We also obtained trends of the so-called filter-bubble effect for conspiracy theories.

arXiv comments
8 pages, 3 figures. This paper was first released on March 2nd, 2020 along with a coverage from the New York Times available at https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/02/technology/youtube-conspiracy-theory.html
Journal reference
DOI
Subjects
cs.CYComputers and Society cs.HCHuman-Computer Interaction cs.IRInformation Retrieval cs.SISocial and Information Networks

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  1. YouTube algorithm recommends videos that violate its own policies: study 1 comment

    • Both happens. Some studies such as [1] measure recommendations without past browsing history, and they still find recommendations for harmful content. Other studies (such as this from Berkman Klein Center [2]) simulate user behavior and subsequent recommendations and find…

      uniqueuidView on HNParent context

  2. Algorithms don't cause filter bubbles, people do 1 comment

    • This is a terrible piece we know that Algos have caused bubbles because they chase engagement. https://www.algotransparency.org/ https://arxiv.org/pdf/2003.03318.pdf https://www.brookings.edu/techstream/how-youtube-helps-form-...

      nojitoView on HNParent context

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