YouTube has basically become a functional part of how we regulate banks now.
SSRN · March 18, 2026 · 6372439
The Takeaway
This research shows that social media exposure directly amplifies 'market discipline' for banks. When a bank is struggling, high social media visibility makes uninsured depositors (who aren't 'sleepy') significantly more likely to pull their funds, meaning online noise has become a primary driver of modern bank runs.
From the abstract
I examine how social media exposure affects the sensitivity of bank deposits, especially uninsured deposits, to bank fundamentals. Using YouTube data matched to 70 U.S. commercial banks from 2017-2021, I construct a bank-quarter measure of social media exposure based on views per depositor and merge it with regulatory Call Reports. I then study how deposit growth responds to ROA across banks with different levels of online visibility. Social media exposure strongly amplifies the flow-performance