Author: Jesselyn Cook / Source: HuffPost
Trolls made baseless claims that the flames ravaging Paris’ iconic cathedral were the result of an act of terrorism, and pushed familiar Islamophobic narratives. One vlogger suggested France’s government had ignited the fire as a so-called false flag, and warned that President Emmanuel Macron “cannot be trusted.
” With YouTube’s help, his video garnered nearly 50,000 views overnight.In January, YouTube responded to public pressure by pledging to limit its algorithmic promotion of conspiracy theories. But its algorithm recommended the false-flag video to users who may have been searching for information about Notre Dame, according to AlgoTransparency, an algorithm-watchdog website.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the monetized, 13-minute video had close to 100,000 views, about 5,500 “likes” and just 130 “dislikes.” Commenters have called Macron a fascist, arsonist and Satan, and circulated their own unfounded theories. Some have called for him to be physically harmed.
“We’ve designed our systems to help ensure that content from more authoritative sources is surfaced prominently in search results and watch next recommendations in certain contexts, including when a viewer is watching breaking news related content on YouTube,” a YouTube spokesperson told HuffPost in a statement. “While we’re always open to feedback from the research community on how we can improve our systems, we disagree with the methodology, data and, most importantly, the conclusions made in AlgoTransparency research.”
The spread of disinformation online has had violent and tragic consequences in the recent past.
Just last year, a man who embraced anti-Semitic conspiracy theories opened fire at a Pittsburgh synagogue and killed 11 worshippers. In 2016, a man fired a rifle inside a Washington, D.C., pizzeria because an online conspiracy theory had led him to believe that the restaurant was the covert site of a child sex-trafficking ring.Facebook and Twitter, too, have struggled to contain false information about the fire that engulfed Notre Dame. Fake news accounts impersonating CNN claimed it was deliberately set,
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