YouTube profits from misinformation videos in Bangladesh, study finds
A recent study by Dismislab, Digitally Right's disinformation research unit has identified 700 unique Bangla misinformation videos on YouTube that were fact-checked by independent organisations and still present on the platform as of March 2024. The study revealed that about 30% of these misinformation videos, excluding Shorts, displayed advertisements, thus generating profit for YouTube and posing a reputational risks for advertisers.
Misinformation primarily centred around political (25%), religious, sports, and disaster-related topics. Some channels repeatedly spread false information, with one channel, 'Sabai Sikhi', posting as many as nine misinformation videos before being removed by YouTube or the creator. Political misinformation was particularly prevalent, largely triggered by the 12th parliamentary election of Bangladesh, held on January 7, 2024. False claims about the elections, misleading information regarding US visa policies, rumours of a military coup, and various misleading narratives surrounding the death of public figures were among the major political misinformation narratives.
Ads were found on 165 videos, which accumulated 37 million views. These videos featured ads from 83 different brands, one-third of which were foreign companies targeting the Bangladeshi audience. Furthermore, 16.5% of the channels posting these videos were YouTube-verified, including known media outlets and content creators across various genres such as entertainment, education, and sports, often masquerading as news providers, the study finds.
Researchers reported all 700 videos to YouTube, but only a fraction (25 out of 700) received action, such as removal or age restrictions, highlighting significant gaps in YouTube's enforcement of its own policies. Out of the 668 reported content available in the users' report history, YouTube took action on only 25, of which five were Shorts and the remaining were videos. 22 videos were entirely removed and 19 associated channels were terminated. In one case, a video was removed for violating YouTube's policy on harassment and bullying, while three videos had age restrictions applied.
Ads of 83 different brands were seen in videos containing false or misleading information, with one-third being from foreign companies targeting a Bangladeshi audience. Brands with ads in misinformation videos were mostly from the gaming, telecommunications, e-commerce, and consumer goods sectors. The highest number of ads on misinformation videos were from the gaming app Hero Wars, followed by Robi Axiata Limited, a Bangladeshi mobile network operator, and Sting Energy Drink, a product of PepsiCo, which appeared in 16 videos each. An advertisement for a betting site called "22bet" was seen in two misinformation videos, although YouTube's policy does not approve gambling ads in Bangladesh.
Advertisers interviewed for the study highlighted challenges in controlling where YouTube places their ads. Many brands have limited control over ad placements, relying on algorithms that often fail to exclude misinformation content. This results in reputational damage for brands, as their ads appear alongside false or misleading information. Despite YouTube's content exclusion settings, advertisers cannot proactively and directly exclude misinformation content, exacerbating the problem.
YouTube removed the display of monetisation status in the channel page code on November 17, 2023, limiting the ability of researchers and creators to examine who is allowed into the YouTube Partner Program to monetise content. The research team manually watched each of the sample videos twice and documented if those displayed any advertisements.
Various formats of ads on YouTube include skippable in-stream ads, non-skippable in-stream ads, in-feed video ads, bumper ads, outstream ads, and masthead ads. The team documented only in-stream ads on videos, excluding Shorts, as Shorts do not typically show in-stream ads like longer YouTube videos. Numerous factors, including demand and ad auctions, determine when an ad will be shown in a video. Therefore, if researchers did not see any ads on a misinformation video when they watched it, that video could still display ads at a different time depending on demand and other factors. Consequently, the true extent of monetisation of misinformation on YouTube could be much higher than found in this research.
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