what's. the good. thing to. tell it's funny take a look at what all that means for the table. every weekend here on t.w. . burke is a lizard man we're being poisoned by can trace that aircraft leave behind an german chancellor angela merkel is headless secret daughter social media is full of conspiracy theories like these and many videos supporting them figure prominently on the net why is that and how does social media help to promote conspiracy theories i want topic this time. does this happen to you the autumn play featured on you tube plays

a strange video which seems to fit with what you've just seen you don't know whether to be irritated all fascinated but you keep on watching so when you find yourself sucked into a parallel universe of alternative beliefs videos on conspiracy theories seem to do quite well on you tube and for some of us at least it's algorithm keeps recommending more and more of them they can be disturbing but it's hard to look away so let's take a closer look at the world of conspiracy if you're it's. reptilians the illuminati or alien conspiracy theories often postulate that the world is controlled by a small group of strange elites that harm ordinary folks but luckily there's you tube where evil doers bent on world domination are unmasked. here are our top three conspiracy theories. number one the moon landing is a myth. july twentieth will mark the fiftieth anniversary of apollo eleven landing

on the moon. but many conspiracy theorists are firmly convinced that no astronaut ever laid a foot on the lunar surface. they claim that the u.s. government staged the first moon walk in a film studio as a show of american power and to prove nasa's capabilities. the alleged proof is there are no stars in the lunar sky because the pics were shot in front of a black screen. and the flag looks to be flapping though there's no breeze on the moon dubious evidence for this supposed hoax is everywhere on the internet and. number two the earth is a disk or at least that's what flat earth believes in the us they often hold conferences to compare notes. think our world is a disk some even say there's an ice wall around its edge which they claim is antarctica there prove access to the antarctic is restricted to certain people.

how's that for logic. number three. jets leave trails of condensation or contrails in their wake but conspiracy theorists believe that these white line shaped clouds are really chemicals which have been sprayed into the atmosphere. or even worse poison them and who's behind it they say it's a powerful and invisible. three examples of conspiracy theories that remain popular even though they're being repeated and scientifically. when it comes to communication the internet of us both opportunities and risks it allows us to exchange information quickly and easily everyone has a voice but in many bad forms no one secs the validity of the content that's called fact checking so the web is also full of misinformation online even the craziest

concepts find an audience but why videos that spread the crudest conspiracy theories so popular on you tube is it because the platforms users are especially interested in them and why do they keep on turning up in my feet i certainly haven't been searching for them french i t specialist so slow it used to help program you tube algorithm today has one of the platforms most vocal critics he reveals via provocative content always ranks high on social media gender ism is never going to try to kinds of best. videos that demonstrate that the us is wrong in fake minutes because that would be a total failure from the point of view of the editors and days no fair i worsen i mean it's it's a myth and the reason comes to share and then grayson is going to have one goal only it's going to go for the school and right now the goal is to make a you tube. as. the guest possible only with it for you

all other social media the and the reason is program to fascinate not teams will be a mystique uses on the site for as long as possible. the more polarizing the content. that uses will sneak new to their screens for instance that theory is judged extremely good basically or isn't whereas like some very solid scientific explanation that's less of a click bait that and we'll be considered bad because it makes basically less money for. for you cue ball facebook. and other social media and then money through advertising and the more uses for us sites content the more companies can challenge space along with a few counter and interaction rate watch time is a decisive criterion which can within the used to select content defeated since.

with beppo new rising content and often strange ideas conspiracy theory videos generate lots of watch time very crazy figure for missions are really good because you're like is that true you want to know so you click on your trade to look for to see if it's true or not and even if you click on new look fall five minutes on the site over the best resource completely. then zero degrees m is still going to consider that as a success. that's a fanfic you tube's algorithm isn't program to deliver valuable information its goal is to keep me on the side for as long as possible because you tube isn't just a video platform it's also an advertiser stream the more clips i look at the more as they can show me so the algorithms goal is to maximize watch time is programmed so that the next video will be even cooler and more exciting than the last so of course i would want to stay tuned it's addictive

a bit like eating potato chips though at some point the bag of chips is empty whereas with you there's always another video up next. people watch more than four million videos every minute and every minute more than four hundred hours of content is uploaded onto the platform no wonder fans of conspiracy theories can find plenty of proof to support their ideas but you don't have to go hunting for these videos they're also shown to users who seem like they might be open to the. social media can really read the minds of their users thanks to the masses of personal data available to them. so they also know which people are most susceptible to watching content involving conspiracy theories. and he's going to find the most vulnerable people on try to brainwash them with a conspiracy between the like they will select on the words of times a conspiracy so after some time to start to believe like it's

a test to be true because i got like two hundred recombination is on the flexors maybe it's true. psychologists say people who believe conspiracy theories are looking for simple answers about how the world works they often believe it's controlled by an all powerful force and on the net no one's making sure they're not being fed deliberate gets information we've seen that it's conspiracy theories on the rise in and in many countries on tape vixen conspiracies like people taking vaccines now people are dying from lack of vaccination in europe. so we see that this says very serious issues. and it's a serious issue with real life consequences for example measles is on the rise in many places because many people are refusing to vaccinate and measles is a very contagious disease and can cause disability or even death and he backs those

believe that scenes holds a health risk they find lots of reinforcement for their beliefs on you tube thanks to its algorithm. a recent study found that anti vax theories disseminated by fewer than twenty you tube channels reached more that one hundred seventy million people in the past decade you tube's algorithm promotes the dissemination of controversial videos extreme content delivers watch time and that brings revenue google's parent company alphabet doesn't publicize how much money you've makes but analysts estimate it raked in some thirteen billion euros in twenty eighteen that's a lot of cash but wasn't google's old motto don't be evil so if the company you wanted to stop the spread of conspiracy theories could it can you program algorithms to push informative content instead you know believe it can be done you could closely every person that felt you made it was facts so as as soon as there

would be a public awareness thinking that we can't continue we said cory's and recommending a. false statement like that because it's just going to be a disaster for say teams are on the run. as soon as they separate and as soon as people are willing to use i'll turn it use on i was reading to pay for the genitives then you can use even technically you can easily build the systems. the platform operators are more interested in providing clean things than providing factual information scientific facts often aren't as entertaining but conspiracy theories attract attention and get plenty of use in spite of the often terrible events they show you mine for nine eleven terrorist attacks. to these days some people still believe that the us government was behind the attacks on the world trade center they claim the twin towers went brought down by hijacked planes but were blown up instant. refuses to delete such controversial

videos even though they contain pay to lay false information instead. the platform operate his plan to display takes from wikipedia articles alongside him. doesn't believe this approach will do much to help on one side you have very engaging very exciting video content that's going to convince your something on the other side you have like this boring wiki page article you don't know wrote it. so he's searching he's going to be less efficient never mind the fact that we could pedia isn't always the most reliable source of information the social media algorithms field what we see and what we don't so we have to be aware that algorithms neutral they're a means to an end and for you tube that end is to make money that's what most companies want but they also have a duty to their uses and should play by the rules we also need to think about how to combat misinformation and hate content effectively and personally i'd like

companies to be more transparent about how their algorithms work as users we must understand that not everything on the net can be taken as the gospel truth. should we put pressure on almost to take responsibility for the content on their platforms do we need to regulate the programming of algorithms join the discussion on d.w. dot com on facebook and on our you tube channel there you'll also find a detail explain about how you tube's algorithm works by and still next.

in spite of on rest duction and murder the rangers are still here. we have chosen this work and we're ready to give our lives to save the mountain gorillas from extinction. rangers and farming the national park in congo trying to fight off thousands of heavily armed rebels who roam the land of its natural resources. protecting resources only go rely habitat next to.

kick off like. so spam so. precious and then in itself. the penalty shot. one of germany's top penalty kickers haunted him and off screen reveals the secrets to making up perfect shots of. thirty minutes on d w. when the water starts rising people fight for survival and on t.v.'s on up i get people to wonder but when there's a flood water comes up to a waist when you're close faster everyone me too but. the lack of water is equally dangerous. there john keep you see people move south so they can plant crops and

find food the same. floods and droughts with climate change become the main driver of mass migration you can write any apocalyptic snout if you want and probably more . carnatic so this starts april thirtieth on t w. the last gorillas of the room africa's oldest national park because of its immense riches it's also the most endangered. in april twenty twelve wolf once again flared up in north kivu in the eastern democratic republic of congo. a rebel group the m twenty three took control of the region including everyone got caught in the .