How covid-19 conspiracy theorists are exploiting YouTube culture

/youtube-covid-conspiracy-theories

  • How covid-19 conspiracy theorists are exploiting YouTube culture | MIT Technology Review
    https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/05/07/1001252/youtube-covid-conspiracy-theories/?truid=a497ecb44646822921c70e7e051f7f1a

    Covid-19 conspiracy theorists are still getting millions of views on YouTube, even as the platform cracks down on health misinformation.

    The answer was obvious to Kennedy, one of many anti-vaccination leaders trying to make themselves as visible as possible during the covid-19 pandemic. “I’d love to talk to your audience,” he replied.

    Kennedy told Bet-David that he believes his own social-media accounts have been unfairly censored; making an appearance on someone else’s popular platform is the next best thing. Bet-David framed the interview as an “exclusive,” enticingly titled “Robert Kennedy Jr. Destroys Big Pharma, Fauci & Pro-Vaccine Movement.” In two days, the video passed half a million views.

    As of Wednesday, advertisements through YouTube’s ad service were playing before the videos, and Bet-David’s merchandise was for sale in a panel below the video’s description. Two other interviews, in which anti-vaccine figures aired several debunked claims about coronavirus and vaccines (largely unchallenged by Bet-David), were also showing ads. Bet-David said in an interview that YouTube had limited ads on all three videos, meaning they can generate revenue, but not as much as they would if they were fully monetized.

    We asked YouTube for comment on all three videos on Tuesday afternoon. By Thursday morning, one of the three (an interview with anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Judy Mikovits) had been deleted for violating YouTube’s medical misinformation policies. Before it was deleted, the video had more than 1 million views.

    YouTube said that the other two videos were borderline, meaning that YouTube decided they didn’t violate rules, but would no longer be recommended or show up prominently in search results.

    I asked Bet-David whether he felt any responsibility over airing these views on his channel—particularly potentially harmful claims by his guests, urging viewers to ignore public health recommendations.

    “I do not,” he said. “I am responsible for what comes out of my mouth. I’m not responsible for what comes out of your mouth”

    For him, that lack of responsibility extends to misinformation that could be harmful to his audience. He is just giving people what they are asking for. That, in turn, drives attention, which allows him to make money from ads, merchandise, speaking gigs, and workshops. “It’s up to the audience to make the decision for themselves,” he says. Besides, he thinks he’s done interviewing anti-vaccine activists for now. He’s trying to book some “big name” interviews of what he termed “pro-vaccine” experts.

    #YouTube #Complotisme #Vaccins #Médias_sociaux #Fake_news