rationalskepticism.org

YouTube Nibiru ‘fear porn’ industry’s doomsday profits exposed

The world spectacularly failed to end today when a mysterious death planet did not show up in the sky and spark a biblical apocalypse.
But you can be assured that the no-show of Nibiru will not silence the dozens of crackpots and conspiracy theorists who make a living from claiming the apocalypse is nigh.
We have discovered that so-called Planet X ‘investigators’ are earning tens of thousands of pounds a year from the false claim that a mysterious hidden world is about to reappear and wipe out humanity.
These ‘fear porn’ peddlers pocket up to £30,000 per annum simply by running a YouTube channel which collects together dubious ‘sightings’ of a rogue planet or brown dwarf star on a collision course with Earth, according to figures from Social Blade.
And even though YouTube has been on a ‘demonetisation’ spree which has seen it block and censor potentially controversial content, the video site told us that videos which ‘investigage’ Nibiru do not break its guidelines.
We spoke to an anonymous campaigner from a group called Truth and Reason Over Litany and Lies (TROLL), which is on a mission to debunk wild claims about a planet on a collision course with Earth.
They told us that dodgy YouTubers were racking up millions of views by snapping pictures of lens flare or clouds and hailing them as proof that a world called Nibiru, Planet X or Wormwood is headed our way.
The people making these claims often tie religion into their ‘prophecies’, drawing on ancient texts and biblical passages to give their claims a veneer of credibility.
Some of them have criminal records, whilst others threaten and bully anyone who dares to question their wild claims.
They raise money from YouTube advertising as well as book sales, conference tickets and direct sponsorship from fans.