YouTube is making money from false conspiracy theories about the attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
On October 28, a man broke into the California home of Paul and Nancy Pelosi and assaulted Paul Pelosi with a hammer. The attacker reportedly shouted “Where is Nancy?” during the attack, and the alleged attacker had shared multiple far-right conspiracy theories online. There is no evidence that the alleged attacker and Paul Pelosi knew each other before the attack.
Yet, a Media Matters review using the tracking tool BuzzSumo found that YouTube is running ads on — and thus monetizing — multiple videos pushing and giving credence to baseless conspiracy theories, including claims that have spread online that the alleged attacker and Paul Pelosi had a lover’s quarrel and that the attack was a false flag. Some of the videos pushed a tweet from new Twitter owner Elon Musk that spread the false lover’s quarrel conspiracy theory.
