The Rage by Julia Ebner

Author:Julia Ebner
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: eBook ISBN: 9781786722898
Publisher: I.B.Tauris
Published: 2017-04-10T04:00:00+00:00

Inside the Bubble

Facebook uses algorithms that prioritise updates that users find pleasant.116 This is done to maximise the time people spend on the platform. As a result, social media users remain increasingly within their own echo chambers. Users follow people with similar interests and attitudes, while social media platforms are algorithmically programmed to show tweets and posts automatically based on assumed interests. The vanishing trust in fact-based media is conducive to the expansion of extremist echo chambers, which turn their members into prisoners through ‘self-brainwashing’.117

Echo chambers have an amplification effect on extremism. Social psychologists found in experiments that group attitudes tend to become more extreme in the course of group discussions, resulting in so-called ‘group extremity shifts’.118 This can lead more people to hop on to the bandwagon of extremists.119 The anonymity that users enjoy in online communities exacerbates this effect by reducing social constraints and inhibitions. The American cyber psychologist John Suler explained that people tend to be nastier in remote communication than they would be in real life because of ‘toxic disinhibition’.120

But bubbles don’t just have a filter function; they also act as support networks. Extremists have successfully established international alliances – against the immigrants, against the Crusaders, against the ‘Islamisation of the West’, against the ‘Westernisation of Islam’. For this reason, extremists tend to be better at connecting with each other than moderates. The US political establishment lives in its enclosed DC bubble, its British equivalent in the Westminster bubble and EU bureaucrats in their Brussels bubble. There is a bubble for almost everyone: the bankers bubble in the City, the entrepreneur bubble in Silicon Valley, the #Gamergate bubble on 8 Chan.

Extremist networks have become increasingly international. New media has made it easier for members of extremist groups and movements to connect through their shared perceived victimhood that is tied to a common identity – be it on the basis of race, religion, political affiliation or class. Hizb ut-Tahrir has offshoots in almost every country, its members are united through their common narrative and vision. Likewise, ISIS and Al Qaeda’s communication networks reach into every corner of the world. The same is true for the far-right networks: Gates of Vienna, Atlas Shrugs, Jihad Watch, FrontPage Mag, Breitbart and Français de Souche exchange information and share each other’s stories globally.121

When Pamela Geller shares her anti-Muslim thoughts on Facebook she doesn’t have to wait long until her post is liked, commented on and shared hundreds of times. Top influencers like her can make a story circulate in their echo chambers within a matter of minutes. While mainstream politicians and moderate commentators are struggling to enhance their online fellowship, the profile pages of extremists are flourishing and their echo chambers widening.122 The success of a tweet depends entirely on its re-tweetability. Extremists’ fake news feeds and inflammatory statements just attract more young people who look for exciting content worth sharing. The diplomatic, often unemotional, statements of moderates look lame compared to this.

In December 2016, the Islamist extremist organisation Die Wahre

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