YouTube becomes the latest social media platform to take action against QAnon and other conspiracy theories, prohibiting content that targets users and has been used to justify real-world violence. A Google-funded report examines the relationship between white supremacists and the internet, but it makes scant reference – all of it positive – to YouTube, the company’s platform that many experts blame more than any other for driving people to extremism. The report, by Jigsaw, a “tech incubator” that has operated within Google for the past decade, draws from interviews with dozens of former extremists and describes how the internet is a breeding ground for hate groups.
A Google-funded report examines the relationship between white supremacists and the internet, but it makes scant reference to YouTube, which many experts blame for driving people to extremism. Study after study has shown that YouTube serves as a megaphone for white supremacists and other hate groups and a pipeline for recruits. YouTube’s algorithm has been found to direct users to extreme content, sucking them into violent ideologies. “They’re underemphasising the role that their own technology and their own platforms have in pushing people towards extremism,” said Bridget Todd, a writer and host of the podcast There are No Girls on the Internet. (…) The Jigsaw report comes as bipartisan scrutiny of the nation’s leading tech companies is intensifying in Washington, DC Google has joined Twitter and Facebook in the spotlight, defending its policies and its record on everything from misinformation to hate speech. In October, the Justice Department accused Google of violating antitrust laws by stifling competition and harming consumers in online search and advertising. Google’s white supremacy study offers little new The Jigsaw report, titled The Current: The White Supremacy Issue, makes a few key points about how hate metastasises online. “Lone wolves” – people who have carried out mass shootings and other violent hate crimes – are not alone at all, the report says. They are often connected via online platforms and communities. The report outlines the growing “alt-tech ecosystem”, in which new social media platforms like Gab and Parler attract white supremacists kicked off Facebook and Twitter. Jigsaw’s researchers detail how supremacists ensnare vulnerable people online with softer versions of their hateful worldview before introducing more extreme concepts. None of this new to those who monitor and study extremism. “It feels very derivative and facile,” Squire said. “I learned nothing from reading this, and that’s disappointing.” The Jigsaw report addresses such criticism, saying its conclusions won’t be new to victims of discrimination and hate crimes, but “we hope that it may still offer insightful nuance into the evolving tactics of white supremacists online that advance efforts to counter white supremacy”.
via stuff: Google-funded report on white supremacy downplays YouTube’s role in driving people to extremism
