YouTube Algorithms Don't Turn Unsuspecting Masses Into Extremists, New Study Suggests

"Over years of reporting on internet culture, I've heard countless versions of [this] story: an aimless young man—usually white, frequently interested in video games—visits YouTube looking for direction or distraction and is seduced by a community of far-right creators," wrote Kevin Roose for The New York Times back in 2019. "Some young men discover far-right videos by accident, while others seek them out. Some travel all the way to neo-Nazism, while others stop at milder forms of bigotry."

Never one to dial back alarmism, The Daily Beast put out a headline in 2018 calling YouTube's algorithm a "far-right radicalization...