81compelling as the alternative. And for would-be converts the
movement calls “flat-curious,” science communicators can
come across as obnoxious. Among the videos that pop up in
a search on the platform for “is the Earth flat” is one by the
website Big Think, in which a viewer asks NASA astronomer
Michelle Thaller to list some of the easiest ways to prove
that the Earth is round. “Apparently this is something we’re
debating,” she blurts. “I have no idea why.”
“That dismissiveness can undo the goal of those videos,”
says Asheley Landrum, a science communications researcher
at Texas Tech University who studies the flat Earth movement.
“It’s not enough to just share facts. You have to do so in a way
that is not going to create more of these boomerang effects,
where people are going to reject your information.”
Ultimately, combating the spread of flat-Earthism might
come down to tech-company accountability. Alex Olshan-
sky, a doctoral student and colleague of Landrum, attended
the Denver convention and did qualitative interviews with
its participants. All but two of his 30 subjects cited YouTube
as the source of their conversion. (The outliers were first
brought on board by followers but turned to the platform foradditional info.) In many cases, the people he interviewed
didn’t actively seek out videos disputing the shape of the
planet. Instead, YouTube recommended the clips after they
had watched other conspiracy-driven videos. “YouTube’s
algorithm is spreading information to people who are most
susceptible to accepting it,” Landrum says.
Former Google developer Guillaume Chaslot alleged on
Twitter in fall 2018 that the company’s algorithm promotes
flat Earth videos “by the hundreds of millions” for the very
reason Mark Sargent proposes: “Because it yields large
amounts of watch time, and watch time yields ads.” The com-
pany did not give figures on how much money it makes on
such clips, but YouTube says it changed the algorithm in Jan-
uary so that it recommends such content less often. A Google
spokesperson claimed that in the five months that followed,
clicks on flat Earth videos dropped by 67 percent.
When I relay that figure to Sargent, he says that newer
channels now have trouble attracting subscribers, but more-
established flat-Earthers continue to see significant views.
“YouTube did nothing but help us for three years, and we
were being recommended wayPOPSCI.COM•FALL 2019 81people who are most susceptible to accepting it.”
(CONTINUED ON P. 124)—ASHELEY LANDRUM