Research shows that a variety of conspiracy theories find fertile ground on the YouTube platform. Its moderators need to do much more to prevent misinformation, which is also dangerous to health.
A huge number of videos about the dangers of vaccines in preventing coronavirus, and even about the fact that no covid exists, are still posted on the YouTube platform, and in almost all common world languages. Although this site seems to be moderated, nevertheless, fans of all sorts of conspiracy theories find fertile ground here, as a study by scientists from the University of Sydney showed. The rules adopted by the leadership of YouTube to tighten moderation and recommendations for publishing do not work yet.
Conspiracy theories influence behavior even if one doesn't believe in them
The authors of the study studied not only videos, but also comments on various videos and news reports about COVID-19. It turned out that conspiracy theorists are almost predominant in these comments. For example, thousands of comments have been placed on posts with statements by Bill Gates that it is he who is the creator and distributor of the coronavirus, that his corporation allegedly designs devices for chipping humanity, which is carried out through injections. All this nonsense is published on the YouTube platform in unimaginable quantities, and users who are not very able to think logically may well become its victims.
Men are more likely than women to believe in novel coronavirus conspiracy theories
Current research shows that disinformation is indeed a collective and socially generated phenomenon. The process of creating conspiracy theories is a social phenomenon. People get together, share new information, which is then used to build conspiracy theories. The current approaches of social media platforms to content moderation, often carried out at an automatic level, are not very effective in combating this kind of misinformation. (READ MORE)