Google's Youtube Promotes Conspiracy Theories About Paddock

||| Mohamed Ahmed Soliman | Dreamstime |||

Whereas we reported to our readers a few days ago that Facebook had to apologize as it’s algorithm in an ever growing frantic search for clicks and dollars had posted fake stories about Las Vegas, it would now seem that another San Francisco great is doing the same thing. Youtube, which is owned by Google, has been spreading conspiracy theories about Mr Stephen Paddock like wildfire.

A simple search on Youtube for Las Vegas shooting led to fabrications, hoaxes and other lies about the mass shooting in Las Vegas this week, and not on page 5 of your results or something, oh no, right there in the top results.

The British Guardian newspaper tested by entering simple search queries like “Las Vegas shooting” and immediately got a return video stating “Proof Las Vegas Shooting Was a False Flag attack.”

Mr Stephen Melanson, who lost both his wife and daughter in the attack says he believes YouTube should immediately take down videos suggesting the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history had been faked: “When I see my wife fighting for her life with a gunshot wound to her chest, and my daughter was also shot, it’s pretty conclusive evidence that it did happen. My daughter texted me … ‘There is a shooting right in front of us’ and another text said, ‘Mom is shot.’”

Mr Will Turton, a computer expert trying to understand the algorithm’s behavior during these large scale events says that the Google and Facebook source code is seemingly “not designed to exclude misinformation or account for bias.”

A video on the first page of results of the Google-owned video platform questioned whether the attack was “fake” and if victims were “actors”. Those videos all had more than 250,000 views after one day on the site.

When asked for comment, YouTube told the Guardian newspaper that this footage and other specific conspiracy videos that appeared after a generic search did not violate its standards or user permits.

In other words, YouTube states that it is not suggesting reputable media sources but instead is exposing them to dozens of videos of a massive conspiracy.

Source:

https://gizmodo.com/youtubes-search-results-promote-conspiracy-theories-abo-1819160202