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.


https://www.wsj.com/articles/youtube-tweaks-its-search-results-after-rise-of-las-vegas-conspiracy-theories-1507219180

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

BMW traps alleged thief by remotely locking him in car

BMW traps alleged thief by remotely locking him in car Stealer's Wheel? Seattle police department quotes "Watchmen" movie in a recap of the recent arrest. Tech Culture by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper December 4, 2016 5:00 PM PST It's maybe the most satisfying arrest we can imagine. Seattle police caught an alleged car thief by enlisting the help of car maker BMW to both track and then remotely lock the luckless criminal in the very car he was trying to steal. Jonah Spangenthal-Lee, deputy director of communications for the Seattle Police Department, posted a witty summary of the event on the SPD's blog on Wednesday. Turns out if you're inside a stolen car, it's perhaps not the best time to take a nap. "A car thief awoke from a sound slumber Sunday morning (Nov. 27) to find he had been remotely locked inside a stolen BMW, just as Seattle police officers were bearing down on him," Spangenthal-Lee wrote. The suspect found a ke...
Read more

Report: World’s 1st remote brain surgery via 5G network performed in China

World’s 1st remote brain surgery via 5G network performed in China Published time: 17 Mar, 2019 13:12 ·           A Chinese surgeon has performed the world’s first remote brain surgery using 5G technology, with the patient 3,000km away from the operating doctor. Dr. Ling Zhipei remotely implanted a neurostimulator into his patient’s brain on Saturday, Chinese state-run media  reports . The surgeon manipulated the instruments in the Beijing-based PLAGH hospital from a clinic subsidiary on the southern Hainan island, located 3,000km away. The surgery is said to have lasted three hours and ended successfully. The patient, suffering from Parkinson’s disease, is said to be feeling well after the pioneering operation. The doctor used a computer connected to the next-generation 5G network developed by Chinese tech giant Huawei. The new device enabled a near real-time connection, according to Dr. Ling.  “You barely feel that th...
Read more

New ATM's: withdraw money with veins in your finger

New cash machines: withdraw money with veins in your finger Cash machine technology that reads the pattern of finger veins is already available in Japan and Poland   By Telegraph Reporters 6:59PM BST 15 May 2014 Cash machines could soon be installed with devices that identify customers by reading the veins in their fingers. The technology is already being rolled out in Poland, where 1,730 cash machines will this year be installed with readers, negating the need for a debit card and Pin. Developed by Hitachi, the Japanese electronics firm, the machines read the patterns of the veins just below the surface of the skin on your finger using infra-red sensors. The light is partially absorbed by haemoglobin in the veins to capture a unique finger vein pattern profile, which is matched to a profile. The technology is used by Japanese banks and also in Turkey, offering “groundbreaking levels of accuracy and speed of authentication”, Hitachi said, which in t...
Read more