ATLAS

UnofficialOMEGA-3-18-5Sheet 5 of 5 of the dossier Flat Earth

Where the belief circulates: YouTube, conferences and polls

How the idea spread online, who attends its conferences and how many people say they hold it.

Summary

Since the 2010s the flat Earth idea has spread mostly online. Communication technology and social media such as YouTube have made it easy for individuals to spread disinformation and attract others to erroneous ideas, the flat Earth among them. Researchers at Texas Tech University who attended flat Earth conferences report that people who are not conspiracy-minded are persuaded by the scientific-sounding arguments in videos more than by the religious or conspiratorial ones. The first Flat Earth Conference held in the Raleigh, North Carolina, area in November 2017 drew more than five hundred people who paid as much as 249 dollars each.

Measuring belief is harder than it looks. In a 2018 YouGov poll, 2% of Americans resolutely said the Earth is flat and 84% believed it round, with the youngest adults, aged 18 to 24, likelier than any other group to say it is flat, at 4%. Other polls give different figures, such as 7% of Brazilians in 2020 according to Datafolha, and wording and sampling matter.

What circulates within the community is a set of claims, for instance that the International Space Station is underwater, based on footage of dust, ice and water particles. These remain theses, documented here to show where they come from.

What the thesis says

The sources show where these claims circulate, not that they are true.

  1. Thesis

    Flat Earth believers have used footage of dust, ice and water particles escaping from spacecraft to claim that the International Space Station is underwater; this is the kind of claim circulating in the community.

    • Modern flat Earth beliefs, Wikipedia
      Flat-Earthers have used footage from dust, ice and water particles escaping from spaceships to claim that the International Space Station is "underwater"

Verified facts

  1. Verified fact

    Communication technology and social media such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter have made it easy for individuals to spread disinformation and attract others to erroneous ideas, including that of the flat Earth.

    • Flat Earth, Wikipedia
      have made it easy for individuals to spread disinformation and attract others to erroneous ideas, including that of the flat Earth.
  2. Verified fact

    Texas Tech University researchers who attended flat Earth conferences say that even people who are not conspiracy-minded are being persuaded by the more scientific-sounding arguments in videos.

    • "But I Saw it on YouTube!", Texas Tech University, College of Media & Communication, 5 June 2019
      Even people who are not conspiracy minded are being persuaded and convinced by the more scientific-sounding arguments in videos
  3. Verified fact

    In November 2017 the first Flat Earth Conference, near Raleigh, North Carolina, drew more than five hundred people, some of whom paid as much as 249 dollars to attend.

  4. Verified fact

    In a 2018 YouGov poll, 2% of Americans resolutely said the Earth is flat, while 84% believed it round.

  5. Verified fact

    The same YouGov poll found that 18 to 24-year-olds were likelier than any other age group to say the Earth is flat, at 4%.

  6. Verified fact

    Other polls give different figures: in 2020, Datafolha polling indicated that 7% of Brazilians believed in a flat Earth.

    • Modern flat Earth beliefs, Wikipedia
      In 2020, it was reported that based on polling by Datafolha, 7% of Brazilians believed in a flat Earth.