{"id":7638,"date":"2019-02-18T13:32:47","date_gmt":"2019-02-18T13:32:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/youtube-aids-flat-earth-conspiracy-theorists-research-suggests\/"},"modified":"2019-02-18T13:32:47","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T13:32:47","slug":"youtube-aids-flat-earth-conspiracy-theorists-research-suggests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/youtube-aids-flat-earth-conspiracy-theorists-research-suggests\/","title":{"rendered":"YouTube aids flat earth conspiracy theorists, research suggests"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div property=\"articleBody\">\n<figure class=\"media-landscape has-caption full-width lead\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><\/p>\n<p>                <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"js-image-replace\" alt=\"A flat earth\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/CFCE\/production\/_105689135_denialism2.png\" width=\"976\" height=\"549\"\/><\/span><figcaption class=\"media-caption\"><span class=\"off-screen\">Image caption<\/span><br \/>\n                <span class=\"media-caption__text\"><br \/>\n                    The belief that the Earth is flat has gained ground among many conspiracy theorists<br \/>\n                <\/span><br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">YouTube is playing a significant role in convincing some people that the Earth is flat, research suggests.<\/p>\n<p>A study quizzed people at flat earth conferences and found most cited videos viewed on the site as a key influence. <\/p>\n<p>They were won over by videos which claimed to amass evidence proving the Earth was not a spherical planet.<\/p>\n<p>YouTube needed to do a better job of ensuring visitors get accurate information alongside such videos, said the researcher behind the study.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a lot of helpful information on YouTube but also a lot of misinformation,&#8221; Prof Asheley Landrum from Texas Tech University, who carried out the study, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/science\/2019\/feb\/17\/study-blames-youtube-for-rise-in-number-of-flat-earthers\" class=\"story-body__link-external\">told The Guardian.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The algorithms the site used to guide people to topics they might be interested in made it easy to &#8220;end up down the rabbit hole&#8221; of misinformation, said Prof Landrum.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Believing the Earth is flat is of itself is not necessarily harmful, but it comes packaged with a distrust in institutions and authority more generally,&#8221; she added.<\/p>\n<p>The study involved interviews with 30 attendees at two conferences. <\/p>\n<p>Questioning revealed YouTube had suggested the flat earth videos after attendees had watched other clips at home about conspiracy theories. <\/p>\n<p>Some said they only watched the videos to criticise them but were won over by the arguments being advanced. The results from Prof Landrum&#8217;s study were presented at the annual meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Science this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Prof Landrum said there was a need for scientists and science advocates to produce their own YouTube videos that answered and debunked the claims of flat earthers and conspiracy theorists. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The only tool we have to battle misinformation is to try and overwhelm it with better information,&#8221; said Prof Landrum. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/technology-47279253\">Source<\/a> by <a href=\"\">[author_name]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image caption The belief that the Earth is flat has gained ground among many conspiracy theorists YouTube is playing a significant role in convincing some people that the Earth is flat, research suggests. A study quizzed people at flat earth conferences and found most cited videos viewed on the site as a key influence. They &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}