In the modern days of the internet, the availability of communications technology and social media sites have made it easy for anyone to spread fake news and misinformation, and attract others to their erroneous ideas. One of the topics that has flourished in the Flat Earth theories.
While people can speak about anything on the web and defend their opinion, conspiracies aren't welcome.
And here, researchers believe that YouTube is the prime driver for the rise in the number of people who think the Earth is flat.
Their suspicion was raised when they attended the world’s largest gatherings of Flat Earthers at the its annual conference in Rayleigh, North Carolina, in 2017, and then in Denver, Colorado, in 2018.
When interviewing the attendees, all but one said they had not considered the Earth to be flat, but changed their minds after watching videos promoting this conspiracy theory on YouTube.
“The only person who didn’t say this was there with his daughter and his son-in-law and they had seen it on YouTube and told him about it," said Asheley Landrum, who led the research at Texas Tech University.
Further research found that these people also watched other conspiracies, such as the alternative of 9/11, the Sandy Hook school shooting and whether NASA really landed on the moon, after YouTube offered up Flat Earth videos for them at its recommended list.
Some of the people said that they believed the Earth is round, and watched the theories about Flat Earth to debunk them, but soon found themselves indulged in the conspiracy.
According to Landrum, one of the most popular Flat Earth theory, was the 200 proofs Earth is not a spinning ball by Eric Dubay.
The video was created, and belived to be effective because it offers arguments that appeal to so many mindsets, from biblical literalists and conspiracy theorists to those of a more scientific.
See also Changing Its Algorithms, YouTube No Longer Recommending Conspiracy Videos
Landrum presented her research at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington DC.
She said that she didn't think YouTube was doing anything wrong, but a tweak to its algorithms to not surface such conspiracy theories should help. YouTube should at least show more accurate information, despite that information is less popular.
"There’s a lot of helpful information on YouTube but also a lot of misinformation," Landrum said. "Their algorithms make it easy to end up going down the rabbit hole, by presenting information to people who are going to be more susceptible to it."
"Believing the Earth is flat in of itself is not necessarily harmful, but it comes packaged with a distrust in institutions and authority more generally," she added.
"We want people to be critical consumers of the information they are given, but there is a balance to be had."
Landrum also called on fellow scientists to create their own YouTube videos to help combat these conspiracies.
"We don’t want YouTube to be full of videos saying here are all these reasons the Earth is flat. We need other videos saying here’s why those reasons aren’t real and here’s a bunch of ways you can research it for yourself."