""Believing the Earth is flat is of itself is not necessarily harmful, but it comes packaged with a distrust in institutions and authority more generally,""

- Actually, it is EXTREMELY dangerous, for it is a psyop designed to attempt to discredit by association, divide, and distract from ACTUAL, dangerous crimes against humanity and conspiracy realities, such as the openly stated plan to depopulate by 90%, which is literally written in stone in the Georgia Guidestones. 
Youtube. being an establishment company, run by the powers that should not be, going to undemocratic bilderberg meetings in secrecy have been behind the push for such nonsense as flat Earth to muddy the waters. 

The belief that the Earth is flat has gained ground among many conspiracy theorists

What the hell is a "conspiracy theorist" other than a smear label that the CIA actually started? Nice try with trying to get everyone to think "conspiracy theorists" think the Earth is flat. 

YouTube is playing a significant role in convincing some people that the Earth is flat, research suggests.

A study quizzed people at flat earth conferences and found most cited videos viewed on the site as a key influence.

They were won over by videos which claimed to amass evidence proving the Earth was not a spherical planet.

YouTube needed to do a better job of ensuring visitors get accurate information alongside such videos, said the researcher behind the study.

"There's a lot of helpful information on YouTube but also a lot of misinformation," Prof Asheley Landrum from Texas Tech University, who carried out the study, told The Guardian.

The algorithms the site used to guide people to topics they might be interested in made it easy to "end up down the rabbit hole" of misinformation, said Prof Landrum.

"Believing the Earth is flat is of itself is not necessarily harmful, but it comes packaged with a distrust in institutions and authority more generally," she added.

The study involved interviews with 30 attendees at two conferences.

Questioning revealed YouTube had suggested the flat earth videos after attendees had watched other clips at home about conspiracy theories.

Some said they only watched the videos to criticise them but were won over by the arguments being advanced. The results from Prof Landrum's study were presented at the annual meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Science this weekend.

Prof Landrum said there was a need for scientists and science advocates to produce their own YouTube videos that answered and debunked the claims of flat earthers and conspiracy theorists.

"The only tool we have to battle misinformation is to try and overwhelm it with better information," said Prof Landrum.

 

Better information, such as this reply I have to put on every youtube comment? 

"Put your finger a couple inches over your hand. Notice all points on your hand would see the finger, therefore would always see the sun. It’s a psyop. Government operation to divide, discredit and distract. The conspiracy is actually quite obvious. "Moon landing hoax" was a psyop, just like flat Earth. I fell for the moon landing thing way back, definitely not flat Earth. They could have as many sock puppet accounts, astro-turf, pay for billboards, have it in the mainstream media all they want, but the seeming popularity of things is not an indicator of something being true, same with all the other distractions and things designed to discredit actual, proven conspiracies and crimes against humanity. They can go on everyday putting garbage out, such as mandela effect, no nukes, no forests, no dinosaurs all they like, I will continue to focus on priorities, If only others would do so too. The SHAPE of the planet can be argued about after we deal with the threat of a tyrannical world government.

Flat Earth doesn't even prove god, and a god would create a round Earth, as it would enable day and night, allow gravity, etc. The psyop is, making the average person think "conspiracy theorists" are beyond stupid and gullible, when this is in fact a major conspiracy to severely hinder opposition to openly, irrefutable conspiracy realities, not mere theories, as the CIA put out that phrase shortly after the JFK murder."