The “Alternative Influence Network” uses the techniques of brand influencers on YouTube to spread extremist ideologies, according to research from Data & Society. The report visualizes the network’s connections and outlines how YouTube—one of the principle online news sources for young people—both incentivizes and tries to discourage this kind of behavior. Data & Society, a MacArthur grantee, notes that some mainstream positions that link to more extreme content can add legitimacy to and draw viewers into progressively more extreme positions, like white nationalism.
