WHEN YOU CAN'T TUBE… IMPACT OF A MAJOR YOUTUBE OUTAGE ON RAPES

On Tuesday, October 16, 2018, YouTube experienced a major and rare global service outage. Using high‐frequency crime data from the United States, we document an important increase in rapes in the 24‐hour period following the outage. We investigate various potential underlying channels that may link...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEconomic inquiry Vol. 59; no. 2; pp. 762 - 775
Main Authors Gibbons, M. Amelia, Rossi, Martín A.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Boston, USA Wiley Periodicals, Inc 01.04.2021
Western Economic Association
Subjects
Crime
Pornography
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Summary:On Tuesday, October 16, 2018, YouTube experienced a major and rare global service outage. Using high‐frequency crime data from the United States, we document an important increase in rapes in the 24‐hour period following the outage. We investigate various potential underlying channels that may link the YouTube outage to the subsequent observed increase in rapes. The overall evidence only supports the hypothesis that the increase in rapes was driven by an increase in pornography viewing. (JEL D91, K42, L82)
ISSN:0095-2583
1465-7295
DOI:10.1111/ecin.12964