Conspiracy Brokers: Understanding the Monetization of YouTube Conspiracy Theories

TL;DR

This study analyzes how conspiracy theory YouTube channels monetize their content, revealing higher prevalence of predatory ads and offsite monetization methods compared to mainstream channels, highlighting potential revenue streams and risks.

Contribution

It provides the first large-scale analysis of monetization strategies and ad types on conspiracy YouTube channels, comparing them with mainstream content.

Findings

Conspiracy videos have similar well-known brand ads as mainstream videos.

Predatory or deceptive ads are nearly eleven times more common on conspiracy videos.

Over half of demonetized conspiracy channels link to third-party monetization sites.

Abstract

Conspiracy theories are increasingly a subject of research interest as society grapples with their rapid growth in areas such as politics or public health. Previous work has established YouTube as one of the most popular sites for people to host and discuss different theories. In this paper, we present an analysis of monetization methods of conspiracy theorist YouTube creators and the types of advertisers potentially targeting this content. We collect 184,218 ad impressions from 6,347 unique advertisers found on conspiracy-focused channels and mainstream YouTube content. We classify the ads into business categories and compare their prevalence between conspiracy and mainstream content. We also identify common offsite monetization methods. In comparison with mainstream content, conspiracy videos had similar levels of ads from well-known brands, but an almost eleven times higher prevalence of likely predatory or deceptive ads. Additionally, we found that conspiracy channels were more than twice as likely as mainstream channels to use offsite monetization methods, and 53% of the demonetized channels we observed were linking to third-party sites for alternative monetization opportunities. Our results indicate that conspiracy theorists on YouTube had many potential avenues to generate revenue, and that predatory ads were more frequently served for conspiracy videos.