I recently found myself paying closer attention to something Instagram has displayed for years. While looking through the accounts of several influencers who have built enormous audiences by demonizing Israel, excusing terrorism or recycling antisemitic narratives, I noticed the familiar line beneath their profiles showing which people I know also follow them. The feature itself was not new, but what I saw suddenly felt different. The names beneath those accounts were not anonymous strangers hidden somewhere in the digital universe. They were people I knew, including acquaintances, respected professionals and members of the Jewish community. They were not individuals I would ever suspect of harboring antisemitic views, nor did I imagine that they consciously intended to elevate people whose content routinely depicts Jews as villains, Israel as uniquely evil and terrorism as somehow understandable. Yet there they were, contributing to the growth of those accounts all the same.

This troubled me not because following someone necessarily means endorsing everything that person believes. It does not. Journalists follow people they disagree with. Researchers monitor extremists. Curious people expose themselves to ideas they reject. Any serious society depends upon a willingness to understand opposing viewpoints. But that explanation rests on an outdated understanding of media, one in which consuming information and distributing it were two separate acts. Reading a newspaper article did not cause that article to be placed before millions of other readers. Watching a television interview did not instruct the network to broadcast it more frequently. Curiosity was largely private. Social media has erased that distinction.

Today, every follow, share, comment and moment of engagement becomes part of a system that determines what millions of other people will see tomorrow. The algorithm does not ask whether you admire a creator, despise him or are merely watching out of disbelief. It registers........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)