YouTube’s efforts to reduce the spread of conspiracy theories on the platform appear to be bearing fruit. “Our analysis corroborates that YouTube acted upon its policy and significantly reduced the overall volume of recommended conspiratorial content,” three researchers wrote in a study from the University of California, Berkeley. Because information is spread on YouTube largely through recommendations, the researchers spent 15 months studying 8 million recommendations from the platform’s next-watch algorithm.
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Study: YouTube Achieves Some Success at Hobbling Conspiracy Theories
Posted by: John P. Mello Jr. March 3, 2020 10:14 AMYouTube’s efforts to reduce the spread of conspiracy theories on the platform appear to be bearing fruit. “Our analysis corroborates that YouTube acted upon its policy and significantly reduced the overall volume of recommended conspiratorial content,” three researchers wrote in a study from the University of California, Berkeley. Because information is spread on YouTube largely through recommendations, the researchers spent 15 months studying 8 million recommendations from the platform’s next-watch algorithm.