This video is primarily making a point about Google. But given the facts presented here, is there a way that a lack of web literacy also played a role?

Watch the video:

The Miseducation of Dylann Roof

One of the patterns we see in online radicalization -- from Nazism to ISIS -- is that people often begin their journey by discovering information on the web from extremists that shocks them. Usually they are unaware -- initially -- of the source of the information, and if they were aware of the source they might take a more skeptical approach to the information presented. By the time they understand who is supplying the information and what their motives are, they are already aligned with those organization's viewpoints.

Once a person starts down the conspiracy spiral, it's very hard to get back out. There is such a gap between what they see in "respected" sources and what they see from extremist sites that they come to believe the respected sites must be in on the conspiracy. And while in the past many people might hold one or two conspiracy theories, the connected, algorithmic nature of the internet creates a situation where believing in one conspiracy theory may start to groom you for believing in another.

Questions for reflection:

- Do you think media literacy could help some people avoid processes of radicalization? Or are the social drivers too strong?
- Are all conspiracy theories bad? Are all wrong? What do you think makes a conspiracy theory harmful? Do you hold beliefs that others would dismiss as conspiracy theory?
- Do you know anyone that has gone down the conspiracy rabbit hole on an issue? What have you learned from that experience about what drives conspiracy thinking?