A new study reveals that YouTube is pushing millions of people to watch videos with dangerous misinformation about climate change. For searches of the term "global warming," for example, 16% of the top 100 related videos contained misinformation about climate change. Overall, YouTube has likely facilitated hundreds of millions of views of climate misinformation videos.
This is outrageous but, sadly, not surprising. Tech companies in America have been profiting on immoral—if not illegal—activity for years. It is clear that we cannot count on Silicon Valley to do the right thing—a reputation they have somehow acquired and used for ill-gotten gains. It is also clear that this destructive behavior will not end until Congress passes laws to make it illegal to knowingly publish false and misleading information. This HAS TO END—before it is too late.
With the daily barrage of problems generted by the internet I wonder if the harmful now outweighs the good? As a teacher and citizen of the world I appreciate information at my fingetips but as a teacher I hate having students spout misinformation and lies back at me. It is overwhelming the amount of false facts they believe is true.
Thank you Judd, for all the hard work that you do! I don't see anybody else tackling this. Hoping the companies will all stand up for what is right. If the videos do not have advertisers that should get the attention of YouTube.
YouTube is already a cesspool of misinformation.
However this one is a life-or-death matter.
Thank you again I'll be following through, like the rest of us.
I wonder whose money is behind all this misinformation? Probably those who profit off oil and gas. Until YouTube, Facebook and twitter clean this up, I’m refusing to go on their sites.
Facebook, Google/YouTube, Twitter. I feel like we can't talk enough about their attempts to actively promote disinformation campaigns or fail to stop them.
YouTube should also make it possible to infer if a video is denying climate change - I bet some of the advertisers are there inadvertently because they simply target the climate change topic.
Keep YT’s feet to the fire as well as those advertisers. All the money in the world won’t help any of these avaricious fools if humanity can’t survive the oncoming catastrophe we’re facing.
Money. My Dad always said whether you had it or wanted it or needed it, it was the cause of most of the world's problems.
Misinformation makes money in the information age. Social Media and You Tube are the reason we have our current problems.
Certainly, climate change cannot be denied.
Buy majorly is every day! Damn the 1% who profit from this form of misinformation. They are like rampaging army ants swarming the planet with lies.
This is outrageous but, sadly, not surprising. Tech companies in America have been profiting on immoral—if not illegal—activity for years. It is clear that we cannot count on Silicon Valley to do the right thing—a reputation they have somehow acquired and used for ill-gotten gains. It is also clear that this destructive behavior will not end until Congress passes laws to make it illegal to knowingly publish false and misleading information. This HAS TO END—before it is too late.
With the daily barrage of problems generted by the internet I wonder if the harmful now outweighs the good? As a teacher and citizen of the world I appreciate information at my fingetips but as a teacher I hate having students spout misinformation and lies back at me. It is overwhelming the amount of false facts they believe is true.
Just stunning that the BS never ends.
Thank you Judd, for all the hard work that you do! I don't see anybody else tackling this. Hoping the companies will all stand up for what is right. If the videos do not have advertisers that should get the attention of YouTube.
YouTube is already a cesspool of misinformation.
However this one is a life-or-death matter.
Thank you again I'll be following through, like the rest of us.
I wonder whose money is behind all this misinformation? Probably those who profit off oil and gas. Until YouTube, Facebook and twitter clean this up, I’m refusing to go on their sites.
Facebook, Google/YouTube, Twitter. I feel like we can't talk enough about their attempts to actively promote disinformation campaigns or fail to stop them.
YouTube should also make it possible to infer if a video is denying climate change - I bet some of the advertisers are there inadvertently because they simply target the climate change topic.
I wonder if they can get their money back.
Keep YT’s feet to the fire as well as those advertisers. All the money in the world won’t help any of these avaricious fools if humanity can’t survive the oncoming catastrophe we’re facing.