Thread by @amandataub

ICYMI, @max_fisher & I conducted a monthslong investigation into how YouTube radicalized Brazil. What we found was truly shocking. It made me reconsider what I thought I understood about online radicalization:
nytimes.com/2019/08/11/wor…

@Max_Fisher Something that really blew me away was that even some within that super-online right-wing movement are afraid of where YouTube is leading the country. They warned us about the “dictatorship of the like”: the ways YouTube encourages politicians to pander to online rage

@Max_Fisher But the thing that made the biggest impression wasn’t the powerful men who have taken advantage of YouTube and its algorithm, or their collaborators who are now coming down with a case of regret.

It was women's stories of how YT disinformation and hate had upended their lives.

@Max_Fisher Non-famous private citizens are hard to find, even when their stories have lessons for all of us. We had to go to Brazil, stand in the heat and the rain, not sure if it would pan out, until it eventually did. We were so privileged to have the resources for that.

@Max_Fisher We attended a meeting of mothers of zika-affected children in Maceio. Mom after mom raised concerns about YouTube-spread conspiracy theories. Had Zika come from vaccines? From genetically-modified mosquitoes?

@Max_Fisher YT videos had told these parents that their own choices might have caused their kids' disabilities. As a parent, what thought could be more painful? And once that doubt was lodged in their minds, many told us, they just couldn't get rid of it. Torture.

@Max_Fisher Gisleangela, the mother of a daughter with congenital zika syndrome, told me that after watching YouTube videos that claimed children got microcephaly from vaccines, “I was scared to give any more vaccines to my daughter.”

@Max_Fisher Luciana Brito, a psychologist who works with zika-affected families, helped us understand how the misinformation that had left parents like Gisleangela in despair is part of a broader ecosystem of online radicalization and hate.

@Max_Fisher Right-wing YouTubers had hijacked already-viral Zika conspiracies, and added a twist: Womens’ rights groups, they claimed, had helped engineer the virus as an excuse to impose mandatory abortions.

“Right after they launch a video, we start receiving threats,” Luciana told me.

@Max_Fisher Those threats were so frequent that the police set up a special channel for her and her colleagues to report them. They filed reports only when they received threats that were especially serious — approximately once a week, she estimated.

@Max_Fisher The nightmare for everyone working on zika was that they could end up like Debora Diniz, a former coauthor of Luciana's and an expert on Zika & public health.
A right-wing YouTuber singled her out, claiming she was part of a foreign-backed plot to legalize abortion.

@Max_Fisher He didn't threaten her directly. But his followers took the hint. Threats of rape and torture flooded her phone and email. They described how they would kill her, what would happen before she died. One read: “It’s God’s will that I will kill you. I will commit suicide after that”

@Max_Fisher Colleagues, friends, even her elderly parents began receiving threats, too, she told us. Some described her daily routines. Eventually, the police said they couldn't protect her. She fled the country.

@Max_Fisher This happens so often that Brazilians have taken to calling it "linchamento," or online lynching. And often it serves a political purpose. Just ask Valeria Borges, a teacher who was targeted by an ambitious young politician & YouTuber named Carlos Jordy.

@Max_Fisher After Jordy posted a YouTube video featuring a recording of Valeria seeming to criticize Bolsonaro's followers, she was overwhelmed by terrifying threats.

Jordy, on the other hand, gained national attention in right-wing political circles. He's now a federal lawmaker.