YouTube has a pattern of recommending right-leaning and Christian videos, even to users who haven’t previously interacted with that kind of content, according to a recent study of the platform’s suggestions to users.

The four-part research project, conducted by a London-based nonprofit organization that researches extremism called the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, explored video recommendations served to accounts designed to mimic users interested in four topic areas: gaming, male lifestyle gurus, mommy vloggers and Spanish-language news. 

Samara Minkin was already feeling rattled when she saw a Facebook post from one of her children’s former teachers seven days after Hamas killed or kidnapped more than 1,600 people in Israel.

“The actual history of this situation is NOT COMPLICATED,” Sanidia Oliver, 37, wrote. “I will ALWAYS stand beside those with less power. Less wealth, less access and resources and choices. Regardless of the extreme acts of a few militants who were done watching their people slowly die.”

A landmark study of how Facebook shaped the news users saw in the run-up to the 2020 election has found the platform resulted in “significant ideological segregation” in regard to political news exposure — specifically with conservative users who researchers found were more walled off and encountered far more misinformation than their liberal counterparts. 

Former President Barack Obama took a swipe at Fox News on Monday, claiming the outlet and its viewers “perceive a different reality” than other people.

"I’ve spoken about this before, but if you watch Fox News, you perceive a different reality than if you read the New York Times," the former president said during an interview with the19th published on Monday.

Obama said the outlets indoctrinate their audiences, causing divisions between people.

LAST OCTOBER, STUDENTS in Sarah Candler’s seventh-grade English class in rural Tennessee were discussing the presidential election, echoing each other’s pro-Trump sentiments. One student dared the others: “Who’s a Democrat, anyway?”

A lone girl raised her hand. “I saw looks aghast from the other kids,” recalls Candler. Then Candler, too, raised her hand.

Dave Wright, a Trump supporter based in Decatur, Illinois, was sick and tired of Facebook. A video he had posted in September of a woman reportedly being arrested for not wearing a mask was flagged for spreading misinformation, and last week during the election, a screengrab he shared hinting at false claims of electoral fraud in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, was similarly flagged by the platform.

This Abridge News topic aggregates four unique arguments on different sides of the debate. Here are the quick facts to get you started:

THE QUICK FACTS

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party’s 2016 presidential nominee, said Sunday on CNN that she “begrudgingly” gives Breitbart News “a lot of credit” for its ability to shape a narrative.

Host Fareed Zakaria said, “There was an article in Vox, and I don’t know if you saw it, on Super Tuesday, on Facebook, the single most searched article —the single searched news topic was Hillary Clinton’s e-mails.”

President Trump has called members of the press “enemies of the people,” deemed critical coverage “fake,” accused news organizations of treason and threatened to make it easier to sue journalists for libel.

But not until this week had Mr. Trump turned to the ultimate recourse of the unhappy reader: He canceled his subscription.