The Chaos Machine Chapter #11

I call this the digital chaos spiderweb, representing the digital platforms that somehow connect one topic to the next, and so on, driving viewers into a network of extremist videos and content that traps people in it.

1. The idea that metrics and incentives for viewership and likes on digital platforms might be creating a structural bias towards extremism is no longer just an idea. YouTube, as an example platform, recommends gateway videos for mothers concerned about the health condition of their children; those gateway videos lead very quickly to extreme conspiracies that, in certain places, become more trusted than doctors. Metrics and incentives that drive YouTube's platform bring people from watching gaming videos to an alt-right path of extreme misogyny, anti-left ideals, and flat-earth conspiracies alike. It is like an undying spider building a never-ending web that connects one topic to the next, keeps viewership up, and quickly streamlines people into extreme radical ideals.

Significant shift to algorithms and the building of the platforms, which is encoded to keep people engaged, to include a level of values and morals, also to include stops on the spread of misinformation. If the algorithm can do all that, surely there can be a code to run fact checks on high-viewership videos made with the intent to persuade viewers in a certain direction.