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Caleb Cain was a college dropout looking for direction. He was then pulled into YouTube’s far-right universe, watching thousands of videos filled with conspiracy theories, misogyny and racism. "I was brainwashed." nyti.ms/2QW3JPj
Over years of reporting on internet culture, @kevinroose has heard countless versions of Caleb’s story: an aimless young man — usually white, frequently interested in video games — visits YouTube for direction or distraction, and gets drawn to a community of far-right creators.
A common thread in these stories is YouTube’s recommendation algorithm that determines which videos appear on users’ homepages and inside the “Up Next” sidebar next to a video that is playing. The algorithm is responsible for more than 70% of all time spent on the site.
.@kevinroose interviewed Caleb about his radicalization. To back up his recollections, Caleb downloaded and sent Kevin his entire YouTube history, a log of more than 12,000 videos dating to 2015: nyti.ms/2QW3JPj 
These interviews and data points form a picture of a disillusioned young man, an internet-savvy group of right-wing reactionaries, and YouTube’s powerful algorithm that connected the two. nyti.ms/2QW3JPj
This past week, YouTube announced that it was:
- Updating its policy to ban videos espousing neo-Nazism, white supremacy, and other bigoted views.
- Changing its recommendation algorithm to reduce the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories. nyti.ms/2XwcJwN
- Updating its policy to ban videos espousing neo-Nazism, white supremacy, and other bigoted views.
- Changing its recommendation algorithm to reduce the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories. nyti.ms/2XwcJwN
After the Christchurch shooting, @kevinroose wanted to try to figure out, as best he could, how YouTube works — both as a technology and out in the world, on people’s brains. Learn more about how Kevin thinks about tech in our Behind the Byline series. nyti.ms/2Iy38iL
