In recent years, online web communities have served as an active source for citizens to engage and participate in the political process. This can be a force for good, as users on Reddit, 4Chan, Twitter, Tiktok, and other online platforms are able to exchange information and ideas at an accelerated rate. The prevalence of such communities has led to more civic engagement in our democratic society. On the contrary, the rising influence of online communities has adversely affected the sharing of political knowledge due to echo chambers and the spread of misinformation.  The large number of active users in these communities are able to easily disconnect from true American politics, and instead form over-the-top viewpoints and ideologies which do not have a relationship with lived reality. The internet has effectively become an “information overload”, preventing people from truly expanding their knowledge and alienating themselves from the modern world. 

The exponential growth of social media networks has led to the rapid spread of misinformation and biased content. Platforms such as Twitter, TikTok, and Facebook have become a locale for ideological formation since anyone is capable of creating viral content and individuals can plan rallies and advocate for issues they are passionate about, as seen in the transcendence of the digital world into the real world. TikTok, a video-sharing site where users can create short videos on various topics, has 123 million downloads in the U.S alone (Herrman, 2020). As it continues to grow in popularity, it grows politically (Sarwari, 2020). For instance, TikTok has mobilized youth political communities and allowed for “diverse sharing of personal identities, perspectives, and experiences”, making it an “engine for progressive politics” (Sarwari, 2020). At the same time, it has also allowed for the spread of fake news and extreme views, particularly during the 2020 US Presidential Election. 

When discussing the influence of online communities on political thought, it is important to discuss the rise of internet meme culture, as memes are now used more than ever as a part of the political conversation. Internet memes are “mediums which communicate information through humor and satire” (Kulkarni, 2017). They have recently become integrated into political campaigning and contributed to the spread of propaganda, as political humor is often exposed to the populace to generate political efficacy and interest. Additionally, memes are often primary sources of information because users read more news based upon the content of the meme . During the 2008 and 2016  presidential elections, memes were successfully utilized as political campaigning tools, and politicians were able to use them to their benefit. Even more surprisingly, developing countries such as Azerbaijan have successfully utilized memes to reinforce ideologies . The effect of memes on opinion formation and conveying information has been demonstrated and studied extensively and according to a study done by Amity University, memes utilize cognitive and peripheral routes to divulge information and influence public opinion, bringing about a shift in political discourse and engagement (Kulkarni, 2017).

The digital world is often fast-paced and one characteristic of a certain online community, namely 4chan, is its impermanence, with the median life of a thread being only 3.9 minutes (Bernstein et al., 2011). 4chan is a discussion forum website where users create threads by posting text on a board of their choice. There are over 70 boards with various topics that users can post anonymously on, with a limited number of threads that can be active in a given time span. New threads are constantly being created to replace older ones, and all threads are deleted after seven days. 4chan is recognized for its extremely relaxed moderation policies, often allowing for harshly toned discussion. The anonymity of 4chan sets it apart from many other social media sites, as there is virtually no concept of “followers.” This allows for the experimentation of new ideas and amplifies free speech, but can also lead to extremism and radicalization. 4chan has been attributed to the spread of many conspiracy theories, including QAnon.

Reddit is a similar social news site with various “subreddits”, or sub-communities, where users can post content and upvote or downvote different posts.  The number of upvotes determines the order in which a post is displayed. Subcommunities entail a variety of topics including entertainment, video games, and news; resulting in tightly knit communities where users can directly interact with one another. Both 4Chan and Reddit breed new fringe ideologies and theories, such as the “incel” movement or Pizzagate conspiracy theory. The Politically Incorrect Board, otherwise known as “/pol/” which encompasses politics and global news, has been frequently linked to the alt-right and includes malicious content (Colley and Moore, 2020). The potency of these web communities is easily seen through their influence on Twitter, a micro-blogging social media site in which users can post 140-character limit “tweets” to followers. Blackburn, Assistant Professor of Computer Science in The University of Alabama College of Arts and Sciences, says that “these smaller, fringe communities on Reddit and 4chan serve as an incubation chamber for a lot of information” (Blackburn, 2017). Since Reddit, Twitter, and 4chan all influence one another, the risk of misinformation spreading to mainstream communities is increased. Reddit and 4chan being more tightly knit, allow for the spread of alternative information to larger social media platforms such as Twitter (Zannettou et al., 2017). A study done at the University of Alabama at Birmingham concludes that in recent years specific sub-communities within Reddit and 4chan act as “generators of fake news stories” and “substantially influence people’s opinions and actions,” all leading to a widespread of false information, hoaxes, rumors, fringe ideologies, and echo chambers.

Echo chambers pose a problem to the political discussion as they can reinforce existing opinions and move groups to more extreme positions . Within smaller communities on Twitter, Reddit, and 4chan, there is often homophily in interactions regarding certain topics. This in turn leads to bias in information dissemination since users are exposed to similar information . Due to the sheer volume of content and entertainment options available to people the diffusion of information has drastically changed. As a consequence, political communication and debate on polarizing topics is often subject to misleading information and biased world views (Cinelli et al., 2021). Smaller sub communities are built around shared narratives and ideas, amplifying political polarization and bias while limiting diverse perspectives and hindering people from gaining information that opposes their own world views. 

There is little research done on the influence of web communities on political thought, primarily due to ethical reasons and because they are so difficult to research. For instance, 4chan, which has been accredited to being the most “impactful generator of online culture” (Hine et al., 2017), and with “developing almost every viral meme on the internet up to 2011” (Phillips, 2015), has scarcely been researched. The platform has been claimed as so influential that it “actually elected a meme as a president” during the 2016 US Presidential Election. 4chan has garnered concern due to its use of racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, and hostile language. The difficulty of researching 4chan is often attributed to the challenge of studying discourse on its site. For instance, language on 4chan is fluid and certain terminology is relative to the site, such as “anon” which refers to anonymous posters. Additionally, Poe’s Law, which states that “it is impossible to tell between serious and satirical content if the author's intent is unknown”, makes it nearly impossible for researchers to gauge whether content may be potentially harmful or whether a post should be dismissed as “ironic” . 4chan users also hold ideologies that are different from the mainstream views, exhibiting characteristics that entail a firm commitment to independent thought, a belief of superiority to the external world, a criticism towards liberalism, and the ability to “redpill” site visitors or radicalize them to their own cause (Colley and Moore, 2020). These characteristics, some of which can be also attributed to Reddit, makes it difficult to study. 

It is important to note the positive effects of web communities on political thought. Advances in media technology have allowed the common man to better inform themselves of economic and political issues and youth, in particular, have been able to directly immerse themselves in the political process. Developing countries such as Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh can better disperse political information (McAllister, 2015). The ability to share one’s opinion free of censorship is a crucial component of our First Amendment right to free speech in the US, however, it is still important to be wary of the information we consume and devise mitigation strategies to combat false information and bias. That way, we can wholeheartedly experience the benefits.

‍

Citations:

• “How Did Echo Chambers Influence the 2020 Election? | Penn Today.” Penn Today, 20 Nov. 2020, penntoday.upenn.edu/news/how-did-echo-chambers-influence-2020-presidential-election.
• ‌Cinelli, Matteo, et al. “The Echo Chamber Effect on Social Media.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 118, no. 9, Mar. 2021, doi:10.1073/pnas.2023301118.
• Baker, Megan, and St Fisher. The Impact of Social Networking Sites on Politics the Impact of Social Networking Sites on Politics. , 2009, fisherpub.sjfc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1050&context=ur.
• Colley, Thomas, and Martin Moore. “The Challenges of Studying 4chan and the Alt-Right: ‘Come on in the Water’s Fine.’” New Media & Society, Sept. 2020, p. 146144482094880, doi:10.1177/1461444820948803.
• ‌“Social Media and Online Communities Expose Youth to Political Conversation, but Also to Incivility and Conflict.” USAPP, 26 Aug. 2016, blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2016/08/26/social-media-and-online-communities-expose-youth-to-political-conversation-but-also-to-incivility-and-conflict/.
• Van Duyn, Emily. “Mainstream Marginalization: Secret Political Organizing through Social Media.” Social Media + Society, vol. 6, no. 4, Oct. 2020, p. 205630512098104, doi:10.1177/2056305120981044.
• Mukesh Ghimire. “The Security Distillery.” The Security Distillery, 4 June 2021, thesecuritydistillery.org/all-articles/the-central-role-of-memes-on-alt-right-radicalisation-in-the-chanosphere.
• ‌University of Alabama at Birmingham. “Study Finds Fringe Communities on Reddit and 4chan Have High Influence on Flow of Alternative News to Twitter.” Newswise.com, Newswise, 2 Nov. 2017, www.newswise.com/politics/study-finds-alternative-news-communities-on-reddit-and-4chan-have-high-influence-on-flow-of-alternative-news-to-twitter/?article_id=684487&sc=c22,66.
• Bernstein, Michael, et al. 4chan and /B/: An Analysis of Anonymity and Ephemerality in a Large Online Community. , eprints.soton.ac.uk/272345/1/4chan-icwsm.pdf.
• ‌“Young People Are Talking Politics on TikTok. Is This a Good Thing?” Northeastern.edu, 2020, news.northeastern.edu/2020/02/11/young-people-are-talking-politics-on-tiktok-is-this-a-good-thing/. Accessed 19 July 2021.
• “Twitter and the Rise of Microblogging | Information Systems.” Lumenlearning.com, 2021, courses.lumenlearning.com/santaana-informationsystems/chapter/twitter-and-the-rise-of-microblogging/.
• Kulkarni, Anushka. “Internet Meme and Political Discourse: a Study on the Impact of Internet Meme as a Tool in Communicating Political Satire.” SSRN Electronic Journal, 2017, doi:10.2139/ssrn.3501366.
• ‌“TikTok Is Shaping Politics. But How? (Published 2020).” The New York Times, 2021, www.nytimes.com/2020/06/28/style/tiktok-teen-politics-gen-z.html. Accessed 19 July 2021.

‌Biggs, John. “The Rise of 4chan Politics.” TechCrunch, TechCrunch, 21 Dec. 2016, techcrunch.com/2016/12/21/the-rise-of-4chan-politics/.