YouTube Tweaks Its Search Results After Rise of Las Vegas Conspiracy Theories
October 05 2017 - 12:29PM
Dow Jones News
By Jack Nicas
YouTube this week surfaced videos peddling misinformation,
hateful messages and conspiracy theories to users searching about
mainstream news events -- problems that caused the site to change
its search results to promote more authoritative sources.
For example, the fifth result when searching "Las Vegas
shooting" on YouTube late Tuesday yielded a video titled "Proof Las
Vegas Shooting Was a FALSE FLAG attack -- Shooter on 4th Floor."
The video said there were multiple shooters in Sunday's mass
shooting, a claim refuted by law enforcement. Posted by a channel
called the End Times News Report, it had amassed more than 1.1
million views in about 27 hours.
The fourth result when searching "NFL anthem protest" on
Wednesday was a video that claimed Anheuser-Busch InBev NV was
considering pulling its sponsorship of the National Football League
over national anthem protests -- and urged viewers to push the
company to do so. The claim had been widely debunked days
before.
In response to criticism of some search results on social media
this week, a person familiar with YouTube said the company is
accelerating the rollout of planned changes to its search engine.
On Wednesday night, the company began promoting more authoritative
sources in search results, especially for those about major news
events, the person said. YouTube doesn't disclose how it determines
which sources are authoritative.
YouTube, a unit of Alphabet Inc.'s Google, has long been full of
fringe content. But as the world's largest video site and an
increasing competitor to television, with more than 1.5 billion
monthly users, its feeding of such content to users who aren't
seeking it shows how the site can contribute to the spread of
misinformation. Google, meanwhile, faced criticism this week after
the "top news" section of its search results wrongly identified the
Las Vegas shooter by featuring a thread from a fringe message
board.
Many large brands pulled spending on YouTube earlier this year
after news reports revealed their ads were running before hateful
and extremist videos, causing the site to remove many videos and
pull ads from others. There didn't appear to be ads on the fringe
news videos.
Some controversial content has been on the site for years, and
is highly ranked in search results. The second result for a search
for "9/11" on Wednesday was a nearly 10-year-old video that raises
conspiracy theories about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and has
been viewed 42.5 million times.
The high search ranking of the End Times News Report video
claiming there was a second shooter in Las Vegas helped it gain
371,000 views over four hours late Tuesday. On Wednesday, YouTube
removed the video.
Jake Morphonios, who runs the End Times News Report along with a
damaged-inventory-liquidation business in Kernersville, N.C., said
the video eventually reached 2.5 million views. "It was a hot
topic, of course, and was going to get some views anyway, but it
really did get caught in [YouTube's] algorithm and went viral from
there," he said. "Clearly it got into featured videos or
something." The 43-year-old said he has posted about 800 videos and
typically gets about 5,000 views each.
Mr. Morphonios said YouTube gave his account its first strike
for the video. YouTube terminates accounts that get three strikes
within three months. He said he aims to offer viewers information
on news events that mainstream news sources won't. "I know I'm not
as authoritative as The Wall Street Journal or New York Times," he
said. "I'm just a guy with a computer offering an opinion, and to
get punished for that is draconian."
YouTube said it has previously made changes to try to promote
authoritative sources for breaking-news events by featuring their
videos on its home page and by giving top spots in search results
to trustworthy sources and labeling them "Top News." The company
added that its site is designed to present diverse perspectives.
"When it comes to news, we have thousands of news publishers that
present a variety of viewpoints," the company said in an email.
YouTube employs algorithms that determine how clips are ranked
in search results, and which videos to serve up to users in its
prominent "Up next" column adjacent to its video player. The
algorithms take into account signals such as a user's history and a
video's popularity, but YouTube doesn't reveal exactly how it
works. YouTube has said it designed the algorithms to get users to
watch more YouTube videos -- a key factor in a surge in YouTube
viewership in recent years. People now watch more than 1 billion
hours of YouTube videos a day.
When a user watches a dubious video, YouTube typically suggests
similar videos, a practice that can confirm users' existing biases.
But The Wall Street Journal found cases this week in which YouTube
suggested conspiracy-theory and highly politicized videos next to
videos from mainstream news sources, suggesting the site was also
pushing fringe content to users who haven't shown an interest in
it.
For instance, alongside a CBS News video of an interview with
the brother of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock, YouTube
recommended a video titled "Stephen Paddock Las Vegas Gunman Was
Set Up By The Illuminati CIA Occult?" Similarly, next to a Fox News
video about mothers criticizing the NFL anthem protests, YouTube
suggested a video titled "SHOCKING Discovery! Brother of Shooter
Don't Add Up INSIDE JOB."
The Journal conducted all of its searches on YouTube in private
browsers with tracking turned off to prevent previous history from
influencing the search results or recommendations.
The person familiar with YouTube said the company recognizes
there are problems with its "Up next" algorithm and it is examining
changes to promote more authoritative results.
YouTube has been working on the changes to its search results
for months but decided to implement them ahead of schedule,
although they still need work, this person said. Searches for "Las
Vegas shooting" late Wednesday returned nearly all mainstream news
sources, but searches for "NFL anthem protest" and "9/11" still
yielded misleading videos.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 05, 2017 12:14 ET (16:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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