TY - GEN
T1 - The effects of an informational intervention on attention to anti-vaccination content on YouTube
AU - Kim, Sangyeon
AU - Yalcin, Omer F.
AU - Bestvater, Samuel E.
AU - Munger, Kevin
AU - Monroe, Burt L.
AU - Desmarais, Bruce A.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2020, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (www.aaai.org). All rights reserved.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - The spread of misinformation related to health, especially vaccination, is a potential contributor to myriad public health problems. This misinformation is frequently spread through social media. Recently, social media companies have intervened in the dissemination of misinformation regarding vaccinations. In the current study we focus on YouTube. Recognizing the extent of the problem, YouTube implemented an informational modification that affected many videos related to vaccination beginning in February 2019. We collect original data and analyze the effects of this intervention on video viewership. We find that this informational intervention reduced traffic to the affected videos, both overall, and in comparison to a carefully-matched set of control videos that did not receive the informational modification.
AB - The spread of misinformation related to health, especially vaccination, is a potential contributor to myriad public health problems. This misinformation is frequently spread through social media. Recently, social media companies have intervened in the dissemination of misinformation regarding vaccinations. In the current study we focus on YouTube. Recognizing the extent of the problem, YouTube implemented an informational modification that affected many videos related to vaccination beginning in February 2019. We collect original data and analyze the effects of this intervention on video viewership. We find that this informational intervention reduced traffic to the affected videos, both overall, and in comparison to a carefully-matched set of control videos that did not receive the informational modification.
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M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85099561567
T3 - Proceedings of the 14th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, ICWSM 2020
SP - 949
EP - 953
BT - Proceedings of the 14th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, ICWSM 2020
PB - AAAI press
T2 - 14th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, ICWSM 2020
Y2 - 8 June 2020 through 11 June 2020
ER -