Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

YouTube Unleashed a Conspiracy Theory Boom. Can It Be Contained?

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 87 posts

Re: YouTube Unleashed a Conspiracy Theory Boom. Can It Be Contained?

#61

Post by modeless »

This is like all those politicians and journalists lamenting the rise in violence, when both war and violent crime are actually at historically low levels. We are today in a golden age of science, where people's beliefs are on average the most fact-based they have ever been. You wouldn't believe the ridiculous things people believed in the past.

Yes, we have a long way to go and we should continue to seek improvement, but don't try to tell me that things are getting worse when that's clearly not the case. Or at least provide some evidence that's not anecdotal.

Re: YouTube Unleashed a Conspiracy Theory Boom. Can It Be Contained?

#62

Post by neaden »

alexandercrohde wrote: post #53
neaden wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think that people will automatically listen to the most relevant, clear, researched, reliable, unbiased voice? Lots of people end up listening to loud, angry, biased voices that say a lot of bullshit. We see this with things like the anti-Vax movement.

The premise of our society is that it's not the law's job to make sure everybody only believes true things. That's a rather Orwellian idea.

1. The law isn't involved in this, this is Youtube changing things. 2. The law gets involved with factual stuff all the time. You can't sell pills and make certain claims about their health effects, you can't print a newspaper and slander people, etc.

Re: YouTube Unleashed a Conspiracy Theory Boom. Can It Be Contained?

#63

Post by FlowNote »

FlowNote wrote: post #49

It is a conspiracy theory to suggest YouTube has a conspiracy theory problem. If you don't like people's opinion, stop spending your time in places where the sole activity is people spreading their opinions. Is the national narrative of Nigeria a conspiracy theory when it doesn't meet all of your "facts"? Are large swaths of Indian religions conspiracy theory because they don't align with Silicon Valley's agenda? Hum…

The parent post will be downvoted and I blame a conspiracy theory.

This is what you literally sound like.

Re: YouTube Unleashed a Conspiracy Theory Boom. Can It Be Contained?

#64

Post by doktrin »

alexandercrohde wrote: post #15

Our society is premised on the idea of free exchange of ideas. Some will freely choose to think/do/believe things we find insane (some cults/religions/jobs). The premise of this article is that these videos are going to brainwash/hypnotize poor fools into believing crazy things. Newspapers need to win not be being the only voice in the room, but by being the most relevant, clear, researched, reliable, unbiased voice…

That might be how newspapers win on quality, but it is not how they will win eyeballs. Clickbait works. Low quality content sells volume. Biased sources are extremely popular because and not in spite of their bias. The fundamental problem here isn't the lack of quality content, it's that we're deeply flawed and easily hackable creatures.

Re: YouTube Unleashed a Conspiracy Theory Boom. Can It Be Contained?

#66

Post by ortusdux »

Annoyingly, conspiracy theorists are great consumers. They are primed to reject the status quo and try new things. Look at Alex Jones' merchandise. I am not saying that his supplements are snake oil, but he definitely profits from curating an audience that is skeptical or outright rejects modern medicine.

Re: YouTube Unleashed a Conspiracy Theory Boom. Can It Be Contained?

#67

Post by tombert »

srkmno wrote: post #28
tombert wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, first off, YouTube is a private corporation, not subject to free-speech laws. Second, while I agree that YouTube shouldn't ban people for believing in conspiratorial nonsense, even if I do think it's harmful, it's not unreasonable that their algorithm should bias things that are fact-based, or at least not contributing to a toxic platform. It's hard to argue that any good came from Alex Jones posting the addres…

> first off, YouTube is a private corporation So is the new york times. > not subject to free-speech laws Yes it is, same as the new york times.

For the same reason that the NY Times is not required to platform white supremacists, and the same reason that I don't have to host Nazi Propaganda on my website, it is part of YouTube's free speech to platform whomever they want.

Re: YouTube Unleashed a Conspiracy Theory Boom. Can It Be Contained?

#68

Post by olefoo »

The most relevant and interesting aspect of any conspiracy theory is the fears it exposes. Whether its fear of environmental degradation ( Chemtrails ), fear of loss of agency ( anti-vaccination, anything mentioning the Federal Reserve, most political conspiracy theories ), racial identity fears ( anti-semitism, "White Genocide", Islamophobia, etc. ).

One underappreciated aspect of the rise of conspiracy theories in the last 20 years is the fact that more people are insecure financially and have lost trust in institutions, often justifiably so. So conspiracy theories meet less resistance than they would have from people who are not worried about their survival in the face of a society that seems determined to immiserate and impoverish them if not destroy them.

Additionally we have a number of examples of institutions being subverted to malign ends, from Wells Fargo to Wikileaks, we consistently see dishonest behavior from organizations that claim to have the publics interest at heart...

Re: YouTube Unleashed a Conspiracy Theory Boom. Can It Be Contained?

#69

Post by cortesoft »

alexandercrohde wrote: post #15

Our society is premised on the idea of free exchange of ideas. Some will freely choose to think/do/believe things we find insane (some cults/religions/jobs). The premise of this article is that these videos are going to brainwash/hypnotize poor fools into believing crazy things. Newspapers need to win not be being the only voice in the room, but by being the most relevant, clear, researched, reliable, unbiased voice…

So both things are true.. our society is based on the idea of free exchange of ideas, AND people are susceptible to disinformation.

You seem to be under the impression that the truth will win out based simply on the virtue of being true, but that is simply not how humans work. Disinformation spreads because it can be crafted specifically to take advantage of the flaws in how humans think and decide truth. We can't just bury our head in the sand and think this is not a problem.

I am not, in any way, arguing for censorship of false information. However, I do think we need to be aware of the threat disinformation plays, and work on strategies to help inoculate our population against it. It is a false dichotomy to think our only two choices are 'ignore disinformation' or 'censor it'. We can do other things.

It is dangerous to ignore it, or to act like it isn't a threat . While I do believe that the overall arc of history is towards more understanding and truth, it is foolhardy to assume this path just happens naturally. It happens because people pay attention to threats against the truth and respond in ways to counteract it.

Re: YouTube Unleashed a Conspiracy Theory Boom. Can It Be Contained?

#70

Post by tombert »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #57
brazzy wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope. Please inform yourself what "free-speech" means.

And be nuanced. Freedom of speech is an American ideal, and a Constitutional Amendment.

I make no argument against YouTube being basically a free-speech zone, and I wouldn't suggest banning people for purely ideological reasons, because I agree that that would be against the American Ideal.

That said, if I were hosting my own video-sharing website, there's no way in hell I would recommend a white-supremacist video, or even a flat-earth video. If people find it on their own, that's on them, but for the same reason that I personally wouldn't pass along flyers for thedailystormer, I wouldn't promote someone like Alex Jones.

Post reply on HN