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How Misinformation Works #001: YouTube Incentivizes Extreme, False, Emotionally Manipulative Content
This week saw a New York Times feature on how YouTube’s promotion and recommendation algorithms reward hateful speech, false but controversial-sounding assertions, and other extreme and polarizing content, as explained by a man who formerly created all of these things for a living as the producer of an alt-right channel. The user-generated “independent news creator” programs on the video-sharing platform that so many have turned to are thoroughly — maybe hopelessly — riddled with falsehoods because lies can help those creators make money. This is a problem because YouTube has become a major source of information for millions of Americans, as Pew Research Center recently documented at length. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the study found that consumers of such news content did not seem overly concerned about misinformation on the platform.
Misinformation on YouTube carries with it all the ill effects you might expect. Videos are easy to access, easy to digest, and easy to roll from one to the next on autoplay. The video format is more powerful than almost any other media to evoke strong emotions . And the sheer volume of false content on YouTube has led to the sharing of YouTube links to frequently feature in sad stories across America. Many families have been torn apart by a loved one who has followed YouTube’s algorithms down a conspiracy theory rabbit hole. To take one example, though many others exist, NPR reported this week that a father’s newfound enthusiasm for YouTube conspiracy videos estranged his daughter from him, and vice versa.
What you can do: Use YouTube for its original purposes only, i.e., parody music videos, DIY projects, and cats playing musical instruments. Alternatively, believe nothing you see on YouTube to be true until you have independently corroborated it in the written reporting of multiple reputable news sources.
Election Big Lie Marches On Via New Social Media Platforms
Claims that Donald Trump certainly would win the 2020 election, and that if he didn’t it could only be explained by Democrats’ cheating, were being made by misinformation bad actors even before the November contest had concluded. He didn’t win, though, and when all the votes were counted it wasn’t particularly close. Overnight, and with the defeated President’s encouragement, a cottage industry of charlatans sprang up to harness, for personal gain, the myth that Trump was the rightful winner.
One of these charlatans was Mike Lindell, a pillow entrepreneur and ardent supporter of Donald Trump. Five days before Trump left Washington, DC and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court swore Joe Biden in at the Capitol, Lindell was photographed going into a White House meeting with notes appearing to advocate for the declaration of martial law, and he has been a high-profile surrogate for the QAnon fringe of Trump supporters.
To the surprise of no one, Lindell got kicked off Twitter a week after the inauguration for repeatedly violating the platform’s policies against the amplification of misinformation because he would not stop tweeting that Trump actually won. He cried censorship and set plans in motion to start a social media company dedicated to completely free speech, which materialized this week (sort of; it doesn’t seem to work very well) as a site he has called “Frank.” As of the time of this writing, the Frank home page features a 24/7 live stream of launch-related content and an embed of Lindell’s latest film, “Absolute Interference,” which asserts the election was stolen with the help of cyber attacks by China, Russia, Iran, and other countries against voting machines, a variation on a theory that has been thoroughly and repeatedly debunked.
We are all victims of this big election lie. For one thing, belief in it was a key motivator for many of the Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6th. And several dozen Republicans in Congress remained faithful to it even weeks after the attempt to prevent Congress from certifying the Electoral College tallies failed. The companies that make the voting machines, especially, stand to lose everything from the continuation of this narrative, and so have taken Lindell and others to court for the harm inflicted on their businesses. Most recently, Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems filed suit against Fox News at the end of March for amplifying falsehoods about its machines, seeking up to $1.6 billion in damages for the defamatory coverage. Lawsuits such as these, especially if settled or won, could raise the cost of spreading misinformation to the bad actors that traffic in it.
Not to be outdone by the pillow tycoon, One America News Network (OAN) has similarly brought the election fraud hoax back to its internet-based broadcasts in recent weeks. Somewhat unexpectedly, OAN has also launched its own blue bird-themed social media platform by the unsubtle name of “Free Talk24.” Watch this space for updates!
And, finally, remember Parler? The conservative alternative to Twitter — promising to refrain from all forms of censorship or content moderation and of course hosting rampant misinformation as a consequence — was booted from Apple’s App Store weeks ago, but reportedly has come to an agreement with the tech giant to be allowed back on soon. Yippee.
What you can do: Before downloading and logging in, research new social media apps the way you would a new drug your doctor has offered to prescribe. Select what and whom you follow with care. You are considering inviting a whole new set of influences into your modes of thinking and worldview, and many of them are known to be toxic — which you can judge without too much effort.