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Podcast: Brendan Nyhan on extremist content on YouTube

Jake Angeli, a QAnon influencer known as the “Q Shaman”, is seen among pro-Trump supporters during protests in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021

YouTube is widely viewed as an engine of radicalization for users on the platform, but Brendan Nyhan, a professor of government at Darmouth College, presents a slightly different view: Though YouTube doesn’t push all users toward extreme content, for those who are already viewing such material, the platform reliably recommends them additional extremist videos. This week on

Lawfare‘s Arbiters of Truth, Nyhan sits down with Evelyn Douek and Quinta Jurecic to discuss his new report published with the Anti-Defamation League, “Exposure to Alternative and Extremist Content on YouTube,” and how to understand YouTube’s role in the radicalization of its users.

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