--- title: "New Research: YouTube Caused The “Flat Earther” Epidemic" description: "According to a new study, the growth of the number of people who think the Earth is flat is directly tied to the growth of conspiracy theories on YouTube." date: "2019-02-18" modified: "2019-02-18" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/new-research-youtube-caused-flat-earther-epidemic" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "flat earth" - "internet" - "misinformation" - "YouTube" --- # New Research: YouTube Caused The “Flat Earther” Epidemic ![According to a new study, the growth of the number of people who think the Earth is flat is directly tied to the growth of conspiracy theories on YouTube.]() *\Image: Pexels\* ## Falling Flat If you feel as though there are a growing number of people online who think the world is flat — a peculiar conspiracy theory that ignores [centuries of evidence]() that the planet is actually round — you might not be wrong. According to an alarming [new study](), the alarming growth of the number of people who think the Earth is flat is directly tied to the growth of conspiracy theories on YouTube — a worrisome sign of online algorithms' ability to mainline bad information in vulnerable populations. ## Edge Case Texas Tech University researcher Asheley Landrum interviewed 30 attendees at two consecutive meetings of the world's largest annual conference of Flat Earthers. What she found was ominous: nearly everyone said they'd first been exposed to the theory on YouTube. "The only person who didn’t say this was there with his daughter and his son-in-law and they had seen it on YouTube and told him about it," Landrum [told *The Guardian*](). ## Pancake Earth One of the great stories of our time is how information — and disinformation — spread online. There's plenty of good educational material online, but algorithms that feed conspiracy-minded individuals a steady diet of unreliable info could be feeding into the rise of warped worldviews. "There’s a lot of helpful information on YouTube but also a lot of misinformation," Landrum told the newspaper. "Their algorithms make it easy to end up going down the rabbit hole, by presenting information to people who are going to be more susceptible to it." **READ MORE:** [Study blames YouTube for rise in number of Flat Earthers]() \[*The Guardian*\] ***More on Flat Earthers:*** [This Flat Earth: How We Know the Earth is Round]() ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()