I searched "should I get my child vaccinated?" on YouTube (signed out, in a privacy browser) and the "Up Next" suggestion algorithm queued up an anti-vaccination video after just one click. From there things didn't get better. Here's my "rabbit hole" path:
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Teachers: This is a great #newsliteracy learning experience for your students. Pick a trending or controversial topic, do a neutral, good-faith search about it, and see where YouTube's algorithm takes you, documenting and reflecting as you go.
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This opens up all sorts of questions you can engage: Why does YouTube have a suggestion algorithm? (To engage you so you stay and consume more ads.) How does it make selections? What makes people watch suggested videos? (Fear & outrage work pretty well.) Can algorithms have bias?
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(Before doing this, remind students that YouTube also personalizes their videos based on browsing history, so it's best to use a privacy browser or incognito mode to get a purer sense of what the suggestion ("Up next") algorithm is doing.)
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For context: YouTube said on Friday that it's revising its "Up next" recommendation algorithm after a report showed how it leads viewers "down a rabbit hole" of problematic content. buzzfeednews.com/article/caroli
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Note that what I'm doing in this thread is just recreating the method the journalists -- , , @_loganmcdonald, & -- used to trace "down the rabbit hole searches" in their report linked above.
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Back to my path: The top result for my search ("should I get my child vaccinated?") was a video from Johns Hopkins Medicine presenting survey data about why some parents refuse the HPV vaccine. Not the most relevant video to my search, but still a credible, evidence-based source.
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When I play this video, the "Up next" suggestion (which by default will auto-play after the current one) is "Mom Gives Compelling Reasons To Avoid Vaccination and Vaccines," from an intensely anti-vax channel. So I'm immediately guided to extreme & dangerous misinformation.
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That channel -- LarryCook333, a "natural health" channel with over 44k subscribers -- is full of videos about efforts to stop mandatory vaccinations and explaining how to get a vaccine exemption for California schools. You can also buy "I Love Natural Immunity" merchandise.
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From there, "Up next" guides me to a video of a panel discussion from an anti-vax conference called The Real Truth About Health Conference -- and I hear more dangerously inaccurate and misleading claims about vaccines.
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"Up next" from that video is "Dr. Sherri Tenpenny: Vaccines 101" -- from "natural health" organization The Wellness Way -- which yet again falsely tells me that people do not need to get vaccines within the first couple of minutes.
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"Up next" after this is another Dr. Sherri Tenpenny video that raises suspicions about the flu shot, and after that I'm back to the previous Tenpenny anti-vax video "Vaccines 101"...which is when I decide to exit.
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Just as a test, I did another "rabbit hole" search using more opinionated search terms--"Importance of vaccination"--to see what might happen to a YouTube user who currently thinks vaccines are important. But *again* the "Up next" algorithm swiftly guides me to anti-vax content.
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This is not at all a new issue, and lots of people (like , , , , , and many others) have been doing important work on this front for years. Follow them.
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The big takeaway for educators? These are realities of the information landscape your students are inheriting--and not helping them understand what algorithms are & how they work, & to reflect on the very real/material impact of them, is unfair -- it actually *disempowers* them.
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If you have time in the coming weeks, show your students how to trace & document algorithmic recommendations, then have them consider sharing their work & voices when they find something problematic. Public awareness & informed, engaged users can make a real difference here. /END
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