Research finds pattern of YouTube recommending right-leaning, Christian videos

YouTube’s algorithm frequently recommends right-leaning and Christian videos to users who have not previously shown interest in those topics, according to new research released Tuesday. 

The Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a London-based think tank studying extremism, conducted four investigations using personas with different interests to examine YouTube’s algorithm.  

Despite varying interests — from gaming, male lifestyle gurus, “mommy vloggers” and Spanish-language news — videos with religious themes were shown to all the accounts. 

“The ubiquity of these videos across investigations, as well as the fact that almost all the videos were related to Christianity, raises questions as to why YouTube recommends such content to users and whether this is a feature of the platform’s recommendation system,” the report noted. 

The accounts interested in mommy vloggers and Spanish-language news received more religious content than the others, which the report suggested could reflect that those groups “tend to be more interested in religion.” 

The think tank’s investigation also split the accounts interested in mommy vlogger content based on political leaning, with one right-leaning account watching Fox News videos and one left-leaning account watching MSNBC videos. 

The right-leaning account was recommended twice as much Fox News content as the left-leaning account was recommended MSNBC content, despite watching news content for the same amount of time, the report found. 

Fox News was also the right-leaning account’s most recommended channel, while MSNBC was the left-leaning account’s third most recommended channel. 

“Because both accounts watched news content for the same time and because this was the only variable in the content both accounts watched, this may indicate that YouTube recommended Fox News more frequently than MSNBC,” according to the report. 

It also found that accounts interested in male lifestyle gurus, like Joe Rogan and Jordan Peterson, were recommended news content that was mostly right wing or socially conservative, despite not previously watching any news videos. 

Fox News was the most frequently recommended news channel for these accounts, and much of this content featured former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. 

These accounts were also served content about “culture war” issues, such as videos opposing COVID-19 mitigation efforts, espousing hateful rhetoric toward transgender people and featuring culture war influencers, like Ben Shapiro and Matt Walsh, the report found.

“We welcome research on our recommendation system, but it’s difficult to draw conclusions based on the test accounts created by the researchers, which may not be consistent with the behavior of real people,” YouTube spokesperson Elena Hernandez said in a statement.

“YouTube’s recommendation system is trained to raise high-quality content on the home page, in search results, and the Watch Next panel for viewers of all ages across the platform,” she added. “We continue to invest significantly in the policies, products, and practices to protect people from harmful content, especially younger viewers.”

Updated at 12:57 p.m. ET.