In a recent study titled, Election Fraud, YouTube, and Public Perception of the Legitimacy of President Biden, researchers found that despite the relatively low number of videos about election fraud on Youtube (because it’s a cesspool of many other garbage as well), those were were skeptical of the 2020 election results saw three times as many as those who were least skeptical.
“The more susceptible you are to these types of narratives about the election…the more you would be recommended content about that narrative,” says study author James Bisbee.
After the election of 2020, loser Donald Trump continued to promote the claim that the election was stolen and the results were fraudulent despite many experts acknowledging that it was not and there was no evidence of.
For the study, researcher recruited over 300 participants and surveyed them about their thoughts and feelings about the 2020 election between October 29th and December 8th. The researchers then tracked the participants’ experience on YouTube. Each person was assigned a video to start on followed by a path to follow through the site, for example, clicking on the next recommended video. Overall, the number of videos promoting election fraud was few where people saw around 400 videos and those who were skeptical of the election results saw on average of 12 videos spreading election-fraud misinformation whereas those who were not skeptical saw on average of 4.
However, due to the demographics of the participants being more likely to identify as liberal or Democrat, there is also the likelihood of people who are skeptical of the election in real life were exposed to election-fraud misinformation through YouTube’s algorithm than those in the study.
Despite YouTube’s attempt to stop the dissemination of election-misinformation, the fact that recommended video’s are based on an algorithm puts many at risk of poor quality information. As Bisbee puts it, If I’m a country music fan, and I want to find new country music, an algorithm that suggests content to me that it thinks I’ll be interested in is a good thing.”
In other words, YouTube’s algorithm has no interest in providing you right or wrong information nor even attempts to broaden your mind, its business model is to keep you engaged, addicted, and come back for more.
The point of this article is not to debate the election results, but as a reminder that the internet only shows you things to keep you addicted to the content. Don’t live in a world where content just reenforces your ideas and beliefs, you should be mindful of how big tech suckers you in and do your due diligence to challenge and questions your beliefs to broaden your knowledge base and diversify your cultural ideas of the world you live in, instead of being in denial of them. Think and challenge rather than just eat off the plate of what people serve you, and that is an idea that both side of the political spectrum can get behind.
J Bisbee et al. Election fraud, YouTube, and public perception of the legitimacy of President Biden. Journal of Online Trust and Safety (2022). https://doi.org/10.54501/jots.v1i3.60
