Evaluating Platform Accountability: Terrorist Content on YouTube

2021 ◽  
pp. 000276422198977
Author(s):  
Dhiraj Murthy
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
Historical Review ◽  
Video Content ◽  
Unique Point ◽  
Counter Terrorism ◽  
Internet Forum ◽  
Content Sharing ◽  
Recommender Algorithm

YouTube has traditionally been singled out as particularly influential in the spreading of ISIS content. However, the platform along with Facebook, Twitter, and Microsoft jointly created the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism in 2017 as one mode to be more accountable and take measures toward combating extremist content online. Though extreme content on YouTube has been found to have decreased substantially due to this and other efforts (human and machine-based), it is valuable to historically review what role YouTube previously had in order to better understand the evolution of contemporary moves toward platform accountability in terms of extremist video content sharing. Therefore, this study explores what role YouTube’s recommender algorithm had in directing users to ISIS-related content prior to large-scale pressure by citizens and governments to more aggressively moderate extremist content. To investigate this, a YouTube video network from 2016 consisting of 15,021 videos (nodes) and 190,087 recommendations between them (edges) was studied. Using Qualitative Comparative Analysis, this study evaluates 11 video attributes (such as genre, language, and radical keywords) and identifies sets of attributes that were found to potentially be involved in the outcomes of YouTube recommending extreme content. This historical review of YouTube at a unique point in platform accountability ultimately raises questions of how platforms might be able to be more proactive rather than reactive regarding filtering and moderating extremist content.

Impact of Globalisation on Pandemics: A comparative study on SARS and Covid-19 (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johann Johann And Devika
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Global Level ◽  
Economic Stability ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
Close Relationship

BACKGROUND Since November 2019, Covid - 19 has spread across the globe costing people their lives and countries their economic stability. The world has become more interconnected over the past few decades owing to globalisation and such pandemics as the Covid -19 are cons of that. This paper attempts to gain deeper understanding into the correlation between globalisation and pandemics. It is a descriptive analysis on how one of the factors that was responsible for the spread of this virus on a global scale is globalisation. OBJECTIVE - To understand the close relationship that globalisation and pandemics share. - To understand the scale of the spread of viruses on a global scale though a comparison between SARS and Covid -19. - To understand the sale of globalisation present during SARS and Covid - 19. METHODS A descriptive qualitative comparative analysis was used throughout this research. RESULTS Globalisation does play a significant role in the spread of pandemics on a global level. CONCLUSIONS - SARS and Covid - 19 were varied in terms of severity and spread. - The scale of globalisation was different during the time of SARS and Covid - 19. - Globalisation can be the reason for the faster spread in Pandemics.

scholarly journals Assessing the Risk of Democratic Reversal in the United States: A Reply to Kurt Weyland

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Matias López ◽  
Juan Pablo Luna
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Boolean Algebra ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
Institutional Dynamics ◽  
The Public ◽  
Original Analysis ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACT By replying to Kurt Weyland’s (2020) comparative study of populism, we revisit optimistic perspectives on the health of American democracy in light of existing evidence. Relying on a set-theoretical approach, Weyland concludes that populists succeed in subverting democracy only when institutional weakness and conjunctural misfortune are observed jointly in a polity, thereby conferring on the United States immunity to democratic reversal. We challenge this conclusion on two grounds. First, we argue that the focus on institutional dynamics neglects the impact of the structural conditions in which institutions are embedded, such as inequality, racial cleavages, and changing political attitudes among the public. Second, we claim that endogeneity, coding errors, and the (mis)use of Boolean algebra raise questions about the accuracy of the analysis and its conclusions. Although we are skeptical of crisp-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis as an adequate modeling choice, we replicate the original analysis and find that the paths toward democratic backsliding and continuity are both potentially compatible with the United States.

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