Youtube begins to filter conspiracy videos, breaches freedom of speech

Sometimes called the “weird side of the Internet,” the YouTube conspiracy community pick apart everything from 9/11 to the California wildfires to the purpose of the moon. Most members on this side of YouTube, what is sometimes called the truther or skeptic community, create content covering these conspiracies in order to test their sleuthing skills and find proof or just to have fun and see what others think about these theories. Most of these users are not out to harm people or put nefarious ideas in views’ heads. Despite this, YouTube has decided to stop recommending conspiracy videos to its users.  

In January, YouTube said it was going to curb recommendations of, “borderline content and content that could misinform users in harmful ways – such as videos promoting a phony miracle cure for a serious illness, claiming the earth is flat, or making blatantly false claims about historic events like 9/11.” This does not mean that the videos will be taken down or the accounts will be banned, but it will be exponentially harder for content creators in this community to get their work known or to profit from it.  

This is a breach of freedom of speech on YouTube’s part. They are purposefully blocking users from accessing certain content and lowering the profits of creators, all because they believe conspiracies are dangerous. In some cases, that’s understandable; conspiracies about bogus medications can honestly be harmful to people’s health. But, in what way is believing the Earth is flat harmful? Yes, it’s false, but not necessarily harmful.  

NewsWars, the infamous conspiracy channel of Alex Jones, has been banned by YouTube already for remarks regarding the legitimacy of the Sandy Hook shooting. A lot of the public’s problems with the conspiracy community are for similar ideas. Recently, a man began a conspiracy theory that Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the Supreme Court Justice, was dead. A lot of people, primarily older people, believed him. This is simply a flaw in citizens’ ability to do their own research. A quick Google search will tell you that RBG is perfectly healthy and back to work. YouTube should not have to intervene. If it wants to, it should be recommending videos on how to reverse search an image or type something into Google. 

A YouTube video is not exactly a trusted news source. Most of these users are having fun and spreading possibilities that go outside of the norm. Anyone who takes a conspiracy video at face value to be true has no idea how the world works. If the New York Times wrote an article about how the moon is hollow and a satellite, or how the California wildfires were caused by the government shooting lasers in order to stop an alien disclosure event (both of which are real conspiracies), then I’d be worried. A 25-year-old on his mom’s computer is not a news source. 

An unnecessary change often has an underlying reason that’s not easily seen. People are allowed to have differing opinions in this country, even about topics as heavy as 9/11. People are also allowed to spread their opinions to others in hopes of convincing them. This is the same thing that happens every Christmas when you argue with your racist uncle. By reducing recommendations of these people’s opinions, YouTube is essentially stopping accounts from spreading their opinions to new people.  

The conspiracy community, obviously being the most affected, has created many videos on the recent algorithm change. Many of them believe that YouTube wouldn’t curb their videos if they weren’t onto something. YouTube has thrown itself in a hole; by reducing recommendations, it has prompted conspiracy channels to create more, and more in-depth, videos than ever before. This is a testament to how little YouTube knows about their users and what they will do in the face of something like this. 

There is also the question of what is really considered a conspiracy video. Shane Dawson is one of the most popular YouTubers today with over 21 million subscribers. He has a series of very popular conspiracy videos on channel, ones that have even sparked large corporations, such as Chuck E. Cheese’s, to deny his claims. Would YouTube stop recommending users watch videos by the 2018 Creator of the Year? Of course not.  

This was an unnecessary change on YouTube’s part. It’s made things harder for itself. A multi-billion-dollar company should not have to alter its algorithm for the sake of people who don’t know how to fact check. These are the people who are going to get caught up in email scams. A way to help everybody without hindering liberties would be to push that all users be knowledgeable about the lies that naturally come with the Internet. So, for God’s sake, open a new tab and do a few seconds of research.