YouTube is one of the most important social media for young people in the US and in Europe. Due to the lax moderation policy of the video behemoth, there is a lot of extremist content and disinformation on the platform. Also the technical infrastructure, especially the recommendation algorithm, favors extremist content and pulls viewers into a rabbit hole of right wing extremism, conspiracy theories and fake news. This session shows methods and results from a 7 months investigation into this rabbithole and show how you can find radicalized users. Dutch De Correspondent has developed a python library with which you can emulate our research in your own country, or use it to explore other topics, niches and communities on YouTube. As a bonus, iyou will be guided through the weird community of right wing extremist YouTube stars and alt-right vernacular and memes that will help you to understand the rise of extremists all over the world.
