YouTube’s algorithm…I mean yes this is about flat-earthers, and we all like to laugh about them, but something has to be said about the fact that conspiracy theories are spread so easily to impressionable youth at a GLOBAL scale. And its not just flat-earthers, it’s Naziism, it’s anti-Semitism, islamophobia, it’s all the terrible radicalization that is happening. It’s all connected, and it’s so so easy to become radicalized because of YouTubes algorithm.
They do this for just about anything, too. Even if you watch overtly left-wing videos they will recommend hard-right video and conspiracy theorists to you. I got a white supremacist creator recommended to me from watching a Bernie Sanders interview.
They run hard-right ads over Left-wing creators now, too. Over a Majority Report video I got an ad for an “anti-PC,” pro-Trump news network. LGBTQ creators I watch are consistently getting gay conversion therapy ads played over them.
The Right loves to scream censorship when they get warning for using racial slurs or demonitized for pushing conspiracy theories, but the Left get hits just as hard if not harder on social media.
This happens even in videos where the title and subject matter do not make it immediately obvious. Watch any videos about video games? Prepare to be recommended videos that start on somewhat valid video game criticism and somewhere in the middle slide right into “GAMES ARE BEING RUINED AND IT’S ALL THE FAULT OF FEMINISM AND THE ESS JAY DOUBLE YEWS!” Nazis are going hard for that demographic and the shit is everywhere.
Just a reminder that this organization exists! Eating disorder rates among trans people are alarmingly high, so groups like T-FFED are vitally important.
Click the link above to visit their site, and find them on Tumblr, Twitter, and FB. They also have an online support group here.
