Misinformation, Extremism, and Conspiracies: Amplification and Polarization by Algorithms

Abstract

Misinformation can be a direct cause of radicalization due to its tendency to trigger strong emotions. Aggressive messages that arouse anxiety can be highly persuasive—messages that point to a threat, particularly one that is sensitive and socially hot, create a cognitive drive for more content about that threat and generate support for responsive action. This chapter critically examined the role that social media algorithms play in recommending extreme content. TikTok’s role in fostering radicalized content was examined by tracing how users become radicalized on TikTok and how its recommendation algorithms drive this radicalization. It identified the social, technological, and psychological factors that contribute to the radicalization of ideological biases on social media and proposed a conceptual lens through which to analyze and predict such radicalization. The results revealed that the pathways by which users access far-right content are manifold and that a large part of this can be ascribed to platform recommendations through a positive feedback loop. The results are consistent with the proposition that the generation and adoption of extreme content on TikTok largely reflect the user’s input and interaction with a platform. It is argued that some features of misinformation are likely to promote radicalization among users. It concludes how trends in artificial intelligence (AI)-based content systems are forged by an intricate combination of user interactions, platform intentions, and the interplay dynamics of a broader AI ecosystem.