New Study Reveals YouTube Still Monetizes Videos Promoting False Scientific Information

Despite its many advancements and achievements in various sectors and fields, the past decade (and most especially its latter part) hasn’t been very kind to science. And if you need any proof, then just take a look at all the false information that naysayers, climate change deniers and conspiracy theorists have flooded social media with, contending everything from actual climate science to the shape of our planet (it’s spherical, by the way).




And while it’s clear that these types of people are one of the reasons as to why there’s a looming public distrust in science, it’s also important to take a look at the avenues that give them the platform to voice out their (false) concerns, and one such avenue is popular video-sharing website YouTube.

Just a couple years ago, the website apparently ran into controversy since it hosted a lot of videos containing false scientific information. As a result, YouTube published new rules for uploading and eagerly pledged to combat misinformation.

This is because per a news report by the global activist NGO Avaaz, the video site has failed to make good of that promise, what with countless videos spreading false information still reaching millions of its users. Even worse is that most of these videos are monetized via advertisements, which means that the people behind the videos are earning from them as well, meaning that they can continue making these kinds of videos.

“We found that YouTube is driving millions of people to watch climate misinformation videos every day. YouTube’s recommendation algorithm is giving these videos free promotion and showing misinformation to millions who wouldn’t have been exposed to it otherwise,” Avaaz wrote in its report, titled “Why is YouTube Broadcasting Climate Misinformation To Millions?”

Per Avaaz, they were able to uncover these videos by sifting through more than 5,000 videos and using terms like “climate change,” “climate manipulation” and “global warming.”

As such, the report provided some recommendations as to how YouTube can actually combat misinformation, which includes transparency, correcting the record, demonetizing disinformation and detoxing the algorithm of the video-sharing website.

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