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There are many examples out of there of people ending up in some weird conspiracy theory rabbit hole, and often it starts with some youtube video, or post on fa
by gameswithgo 6y ago
There are many examples out of there of people ending up in some weird conspiracy theory rabbit hole, and often it starts with some youtube video, or post on facebook. Mothers who have lost sons, wives who have lost husbands. They have seen them turn into crazy people
(examples: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/09/14/qanon-families-support-group/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/09/14/qanon-f... )
If those videos are not as present on youtube to begin with, perhaps fewer people end up down these rabbit holes. Of course it won't do anything to convince people who are already falling down the hole.
- jakelazaroff 6y agoNot sure why this is downvoted. The YouTube radicalization pathway is fairly well documented, e.g. [1][2][3]. Even if we can't all agree on the specific mechanism of action, the phenomenon certainly exists. [1] https://arxiv.org/abs/1912.11211 https://arxiv.org/abs/1912.11211 [2] https://mark-ledwich.medium.com/youtube-radicalization-an-authoritative-saucy-story-28f73953ed17 https://mark-ledwich.medium.com/youtube-radicalization-an-au... [3] https://www.wired.com/story/not-youtubes-algorithm-radicalizes-people/ https://www.wired.com/story/not-youtubes-algorithm-radicaliz...
- dylan604 6y agoConspiracy peddlers and those that follow them have been around long before YouTube and social media. Some extraordinarily bizarre ideas have been published on Xeroxed/mimeographed 'zines sent out via snail mail. While social media definitely makes it easier, it's not the only way for information to disseminate.
- metamet 6y agoThe difference is that mainstream platforming of those ideas exposes them to massive amounts of folks who stumble upon them, whereas you would have historically had to seek it out on purpose.