“Of course YouTube was the main source to open my eyes to the flat world.”
These words belong to the flat-earth believer Dave, who speaks to the BBC Reel. His personal story shows that Dave has accessed misleading information that the world is flat through YouTube, and has been exposed to such content for a long time with the platform’s recommendations. It is also very similar to the story of other members of this mass who have been accepted by the mainstream, scientifically proven, and who believe that the world is flat by rejecting an objective truth.
Warning: The world is not flat
It all starts when Dave is overwhelmed by television programs and turns to watching YouTube for “alternative information”. YouTube’s proposed algorithm recognizes Dave who is interested in Moon landing videos, and after a while begins to produce flat-world videos to the recommended part, which appears to be “next”. This is the YouTube suggested algorithm, which leads Dave to watch the first flat world video.
After his first video about the flat world, Dave thinks that what is being told is “beyond nonsense.” But although critical, Dave’s time to watch such content leads to more flat-world videos. Dave explores other conspiracy theories that have been persistently brought to the fore among the “flat worldists” who believe that the world is flat.
Dave’s story, although it may seem like a personal story, is actually quite familiar to many straight-worlders. Asheley Landrum, a member of the University of Texas Tech, says this pattern is found in many users who have been misinformed to prove otherwise:
“At first they reject flat-world videos. They think that this is wrong information and they are trying to refute the information presented. They think they will shoot videos that refute the flat world videos. They watch other videos about the flat world, start researching the matter, and before they can go deeper, they believe that the world is flat based on [conspiracy theories] videos.”
YouTube “enlightenment” feeds conspiracy theories
Dave’s claim is that flat earthers have reached this point while watching other conspiracy theories on YouTube. According to the news published in The Guardian in February, researchers agree that YouTube is behind the rise of flat worlds. But according to this movement, which has reached a very large audience, YouTube is the biggest force behind their “enlightenment”. They think that YouTube speaks of “truths tersine as opposed to the mainstream and includes “truths“.
Flat Earth International Conference, the first meeting of which was held in Denver, Colorado in 2017, second was held in Raleigh, North Carolina in 2018 with the participation of activists from all over the world. Researchers participating in the Raleigh meeting conduct surveys of 30 straight worlds here, and everyone but one person says they are “convinced” that the world is flat by following conspiracy theories on YouTube. The 2018 YouGov survey shows that about one-third of Americans aged 18-24 are unsure of the shape of the world.
Videos that the world is flat are more prominent than videos about the world being round, Gu says Guillaume Chaslot, a software engineer who used to work at Google. According to YouTube, such content is among the line borderline content. (* threshold content: misleading content that technically does not violate content policy but misleads people). Therefore, although efforts are underway to reduce access to these videos, it is not on the agenda to remove them completely from the platform.
And yes, of course there are documentaries on YouTube that tell us that the world is round. However, the content of flat worlds persists. Experts show that the videos that describe the true shape of the world are less compared to plain worlds, because the idea is that there is no need to prove that the world is round.
Independent conspiracy theories intertwine
Mak Believing that the world is flat may not be dangerous in itself, but this belief often comes with distrust to institutions and authorities, rum says Landrum. The words of flat-world activist Roxanne Glen confirm this impulse about the nature of conspiracy theories. Roxanne likens to ‘discover u that the world is flat aya to open Pandora’s box:: ors you reveal a lie, and then you look at it‘ yes, they are not completely honest about it either.”
However, the questioning of objective truths and the urge to consider any information that contradicts personal beliefs and views as “lies may soon lead to the formation of conspiracy theories that can lead to new and enormous consequences.
In addition, the criticism that the news channels that do not find the world flat is unrealistic, produce content that touches the flat world, and that they involuntarily spread this trend. In this regard, the BBC can be a guide. BBC reports on the world of the world, as we do, “First a spoiler warning: the world is not flat.” Is attached and the reader is warned against the threat of false information before encountering more content.
Karen Douglas of Kent University warns against the need to take action against the growing flat world movement: se If this is a clever and seemingly informative view of the minority, and the supporters do not deviate from these sound ideas, what they say can be very effective. This is called minority influence.”
The “flat worldists, who provide scientific explanations, conduct their own experiments, and believe that the world is flat with views based on ancient Egyptian inscriptions or religious texts, emerge as a unique group by questioning objective reality and believing in more than one conspiracy theory. And if YouTube continues to suggest such content to more users as alleged, the platform may soon become the main medium where everyone can produce their own theory about the world’s shape.
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