THE INTERNET’S ECHO CHAMBERS AND THEIR EFFECT ON VIOLENT RADICALIZATION, INFORMATION DISORDER, AND HATE SPEECH

In an age when information can be easily accessed online, it is vital that society prepares to create countermeasures against misinformation. A lack of preparation allows echo chambers to fester and metastasize across social media websites for malicious vested interests. This paper aims to investigate Internet “echo chamber” culture and its effect on information disorder, hate speech, and violent radicalization. I argue that echo chambers expedite the rise of fake news, disorders of information, and hate speech, and promote violent radicalization of targeted groups primarily on social media. An issue I address is whether censorship of echo chamber rhetoric will cause more negative than positive effects within social media communities. Information can easily be exploited which calls for an emphasis on education - specifically around critical thinking skills and freedom of expression to counteract the negative effects of echo chambers.