YouTube’s recommendation system may have boosted interest in false claims about voter fraud for several weeks between the 2020 presidential election and the Jan. 6 riot in the U.S. Capitol, according to a study published Thursday based on data from the crucial period. Researchers analyzed YouTube usage from 361 people who signed up before the election to participate in the study. They found that participants most skeptical about the legitimacy of the election were disproportionately more likely to get fraud-related video recommendations from YouTube than participants who weren’t skeptical. The study adds to a debate within tech companies and among academics about online echo chambers and “filter bubbles,” in which people take in information only that they agree with — either because that’s what they want or that’s what tech platforms give them or both. The researchers found that those most skeptical of the election results got three times as many video recommendations for election fraud than the least likely participants, though in absolute terms the number of videos was small: 12 videos versus four videos among about 410 recommendations. James Bisbee, the study’s lead author and until recently a researcher at New York University, said YouTube’s recommendations helped to create a path for…
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YouTube pushed Trump supporters toward voter fraud videos, study finds – NBC News
