Don’t you often find yourself too immersed in social media, getting angry at certain political posts on your feed? Such adverse reactions are all intended. Often these posts are intentionally triggering such emotional reactions. Due to the desire for online popularity and attention, many posts lack truthfulness in their presentation, which results in a more extreme atmosphere of the internet.

Caolan Robertson is a videographer who used to produce videos for alt-right Youtuber Tommy Robinson. His videos mainly played on the fears of anti-immigrant sentiments of Britain and Europe, promoting particularly anti-Muslim beliefs as well. A video of Robinson’s episode in Rome was subtly edited as if Robinson was being threatened by a Black immigrant. When in fact, he was the aggressor. Such videos unjustly evoke anger towards such specific minorities. Robertson explicitly stated that they “were trying to find the most incendiary way of making them mad.”

The problem, unfortunately, does not end there. YouTube’s recommendation algorithm often further urges people to indulge in extremist videos. This results in the creation of an “echo chamber,” in which people’s extremist beliefs only get reinforced over time, not countered.

New York Times journalist Cade Metz, who reported on Robertson’s story in detail, thinks that “the most important thing is to think about what we’re really watching and doing online.” Of course, we shouldn’t start distrusting everything we see on the internet, but there needs to be more awareness around the fact that we can be manipulated, and people do willingly exploit others in meticulous ways.

김주환 강남포스트  webmaster@ignnews.kr

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