YouTube Tweaks Search Results After False Claims Rise to Top
YouTube Tweaks Search Results After False Claims Rise to
Top
Debunked claims appear in top 5 videos for news about Las
Vegas shooting, NFL anthem protests
By Jack Nicas Oct. 5, 2017 11:59 a.m. ET
YouTube this week surfaced videos peddling
misinformation, hateful messages and conspiracy theories to users searching
about mainstream news events—problems that caused the site to change its search
results to promote more authoritative sources.
For example, the fifth result when searching “Las Vegas
shooting” on YouTube late Tuesday yielded a video titled “Proof Las Vegas
Shooting Was a FALSE FLAG attack—Shooter on 4th Floor.” The video said there
were multiple shooters in Sunday’s mass shooting, a claim refuted by law
enforcement. Posted by a channel called the End Times News Report, it had
amassed more than 1.1 million views in about 27 hours.
The fourth result when searching “NFL anthem protest” on
Wednesday was a video that claimed Anheuser-Busch NV was considering pulling
its sponsorship of the National Football League over national anthem
protests—and urged viewers to push the company to do so. The claim had been
widely debunked days before.
In response to criticism of some search results on social
media this week, a person familiar with YouTube said the company is
accelerating the rollout of planned changes to its search engine. On Wednesday
night, the company began promoting more authoritative sources in search
results, especially for those about major news events, the person said. YouTube
doesn’t disclose how it determines which sources are authoritative.
YouTube, a unit of Alphabet Inc.’s Google, has long been
full of fringe content. But as the world’s largest video site and an increasing
competitor to television, with more than 1.5 billion monthly users, its feeding
of such content to users who aren’t seeking it shows how the site can
contribute to the spread of misinformation. Google, meanwhile, faced criticism
this week after the “top news” section of its search results wrongly identified
the Las Vegas shooter by featuring a thread from a fringe message board.
Many large brands pulled spending on YouTube earlier this
year after news reports revealed their ads were running before hateful and
extremist videos, causing the site to remove many videos and pull ads from
others. There didn’t appear to be ads on the fringe news videos.
Some controversial content has been on the site for
years, and is highly ranked in search results. The second result for a search
for “9/11” on Wednesday was a nearly 10-year-old video that raises conspiracy
theories about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and has been viewed 42.5 million
times.
The high search ranking of the End Times News Report
video claiming there was a second shooter in Las Vegas helped it gain 371,000
views over four hours late Tuesday. On Wednesday, YouTube removed the video.
Jake Morphonios, who runs the End Times News Report along
with a damaged-inventory-liquidation business in Kernersville, N.C., said the
video eventually reached 2.5 million views. “It was a hot topic, of course, and
was going to get some views anyway, but it really did get caught in [YouTube’s]
algorithm and went viral from there,” he said. “Clearly it got into featured
videos or something.” The 43-year-old said he has posted about 800 videos and
typically gets about 5,000 views each.
Mr. Morphonios said YouTube gave his account its first
strike for the video. YouTube terminates accounts that get three strikes within
three months. He said he aims to offer viewers information on news events that
mainstream news sources won’t. “I know I’m not as authoritative as The Wall
Street Journal or New York Times,” he said. “I’m just a guy with a computer
offering an opinion, and to get punished for that is draconian.”
YouTube said it has previously made changes to try to
promote authoritative sources for breaking-news events by featuring their
videos on its home page and by giving top spots in search results to
trustworthy sources and labeling them “Top News.” The company added that its
site is designed to present diverse perspectives. “When it comes to news, we
have thousands of news publishers that present a variety of viewpoints,” the
company said in an email.
YouTube employs algorithms that determine how clips are
ranked in search results, and which videos to serve up to users in its
prominent “Up next” column adjacent to its video player. The algorithms take
into account signals such as a user’s history and a video’s popularity, but
YouTube doesn’t reveal exactly how it works. YouTube has said it designed the
algorithms to get users to watch more YouTube videos—a key factor in a surge in
YouTube viewership in recent years. People now watch more than 1 billion hours
of YouTube videos a day.
When a user watches a dubious video, YouTube typically
suggests similar videos, a practice that can confirm users’ existing biases.
But The Wall Street Journal found cases this week in which YouTube suggested
conspiracy-theory and highly politicized videos next to videos from mainstream
news sources, suggesting the site was also pushing fringe content to users who
haven’t shown an interest in it.
For instance, alongside a CBS News video of an interview
with the brother of Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock, YouTube recommended a
video titled “Stephen Paddock Las Vegas Gunman Was Set Up By The Illuminati CIA
Occult?” Similarly, next to a Fox News video about mothers criticizing the NFL
anthem protests, YouTube suggested a video titled “SHOCKING Discovery! Brother
of Shooter Don’t Add Up INSIDE JOB.”
The Journal conducted all of its searches on YouTube in
private browsers with tracking turned off to prevent previous history from
influencing the search results or recommendations.
The person familiar with YouTube said the company
recognizes there are problems with its “Up next” algorithm and it is examining
changes to promote more authoritative results.
YouTube has been working on the changes to its search
results for months but decided to implement them ahead of schedule, although
they still need work, this person said. Searches for “Las Vegas shooting” late
Wednesday returned nearly all mainstream news sources, but searches for “NFL
anthem protest” and “9/11” still yielded misleading videos.
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