Investigation 4 Spanish-Language News Consumers

The report finds that while YouTube's algorithm primarily recommends Spanish-language news to both mainstream and fringe users, it serves conspiracy content to those who seek it at a lower rate than it serves lifestyle vlogger content to mainstream users. However, the fringe account received significantly more advertisements for Facebook and education, and a small number of recommendations related to weapons and military content.

• The majority of recommended videos for both the mainstream and fringe accounts were aligned with their primary interest in Spanish-language news content.
• The algorithm recommended conspiracy videos to the fringe profile that had viewed such content, but at a lower rate than the mainstream profile was recommended its secondary interest of vlogger content. Specifically, 10% of videos recommended more than once to the fringe account were conspiracy-related, compared to over 30% of vlogger-related recommendations for the mainstream account.
• The fringe account received a small number of recommendations for weapons and military content, including one video on handguns and one on military airplanes, which the authors describe as a concerning trend.
• Advertisements differed substantially between the two profiles; the fringe account was served twice as many education ads (specifically data science and coding) and significantly more ads for Facebook than the mainstream account.
• The mainstream account was recommended significantly more videos related to religion, specifically evangelical Christianity, though the reason for this is unclear.
• The mainstream account received a higher total volume of recommendations, with 595 total videos and 12 ads, while the fringe account received 482 total videos and 24 ads.

APA

Gatewood, C. (2024). Investigation 4 Spanish-Language News Consumers. Institute for Strategic Dialogue. https://www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Pulling-Back-the-Curtain-Spanish-Language-News-Consumers.pdf

Chicago

Gatewood, Cooper. Investigation 4 Spanish-Language News Consumers. Institute for Strategic Dialogue, 2024. https://www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Pulling-Back-the-Curtain-Spanish-Language-News-Consumers.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Gatewood |first1=Cooper |title=Investigation 4 Spanish-Language News Consumers |publisher=Institute for Strategic Dialogue |date=2024 |url=https://www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Pulling-Back-the-Curtain-Spanish-Language-News-Consumers.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{gatewood2024investigation, author = {Gatewood, Cooper}, title = {{Investigation 4 Spanish-Language News Consumers}}, institution = {Institute for Strategic Dialogue}, year = {2024}, url = {https://www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Pulling-Back-the-Curtain-Spanish-Language-News-Consumers.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }