UPDATE: YouTube was reported to have modified its search results algorithm as of Friday
The very first result in a YouTube search for “Las Vegas shooting” on Wednesday was a video that alleged gunshots came from the fourth floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, rather than from the 32nd.
In the video, a Vancouver-based YouTube user known as Squatting Slav TV showed images of a flashing light coming from a room on a lower floor of the building.
He used those images to advance a theory, called “false” by Snopes, that there were multiple shooters involved in the deadliest mass shooting in American history.
But that’s just one video that advances a debunked theory that can be found when you look for almost anything about the Las Vegas shooting on YouTube. Other videos allege that the attack was a “false flag hoax” or that there were “fake gunshots.”
Coverage of the Las Vegas shooting on Globalnews.ca:
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The search results were enough to frustrate people whose loved ones were shot in the attack, or who witnessed it themselves, The Guardian reported Wednesday.
“It’s not a conspiracy,” Krista Metz, who was standing near the stage at the Route 91 Harvest festival when the shooting started on Sunday, told the newspaper.
“It’s not a joke. It did happen. I was there.”
READ MORE: Las Vegas shooting: what we know and don’t know about the massacre
The theory about multiple shooters originated with websites that had a “less than nodding acquaintance with journalistic integrity,” according to Snopes.
One site, YourNewsWire, reported Monday that there were two videos which alleged there were numerous shooters in a “co-ordinated attack.”
YourNewsWire is known for “inserting itself into tragedies to push the anti-semitic New World Order conspiracy theory,” Snopes said when fact-checking the rumour.
For its part, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) has so far shot down theories that there was more than one shooter on Sunday night.
“I want to emphasize we believe Paddock is solely responsible for this heinous act,” LVMPD Asst. Sheriff Todd Fasulo said, as quoted by ABC.
“We are aware of the rumours outside of the media and also on social media that there was more than one assailant. We have no information or evidence to support that theory, or that rumour.
“We are doing a thorough investigation and only want to provide what is accurate to you.”
Even as law enforcement have worked to debunk such rumours, conspiracy theories nevertheless abounded in YouTube searches this week.
FastCompany reported that on Tuesday morning, it found five conspiracy-related videos in the top 13 results when it searched for “Las Vegas shooting” on the site’s main search bar.
While such videos have stayed out of YouTube’s news section, content featuring “false flag” narratives and other theories has nevertheless pulled in millions of views, FastCompany noted.
In a statement to Global News, a YouTube spokesperson said all videos uploaded to the site “must comply with our Community Guidelines and we routinely remove videos flagged by our community that violate these policies.
“We also terminate the accounts of users who repeatedly violate our Guidelines or Terms of Service,” the spokesperson added.
YouTube search results are largely determined by keyword queries, and are ranked based on titles, descriptions, and whether video content matches the searcher’s query, as well as the engagement on the video itself.
Search results change often after major news events, and they have been known to improve in quality as more (and better) content is uploaded to the site.
READ MORE: Australia banned semi-automatic weapons after a mass murder; here’s what happened next
But the controversy over YouTube search results comes after Google and Facebook were criticized for surfacing less-than-reliable links for their users, CNN reported
The network noted that Google’s “Top Stories” section contained a recommended link to a 4chan board that erroneously blamed the shooting on the wrong person.
Google confirmed to CNN that the 4chan story was replaced within hours, and that it should “not have appeared for any queries.”
Meanwhile, Facebook carried a number of unreliable websites on a page that provides information about crises.
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