This is a short summary of Champion's investigation into the presence of Incels and other misogynist videos on YouTube based on her presentation at the 2021 CASIS Vancouver Defence and Security Advisory Network Workshop. “She demonstrated how the Internet can facilitate passive and active consumption of extremist messaging, propaganda, and other radicalizing materials.” She explores the path of radicalization from online videos to violent attacks by high profile Incels like Elliot Rodger (2014), Chris Harper-Mercer (2015), Alek Minassian (2018) (studied as case studies). Her research begins with an in-depth research study SNA using Incel terms as search terms to figure out the types of Incel-related community clusters on YouTube, identify the most influential videos that bridges the communities, and explore the viewing path that YouTube’s algorithm takes viewers on (the pipeline). NodeXL uses the data to produce a visual graphic. The text also presents a glossary that explains the meaning of concepts such as "Black Pill Ideology”, “Incel”, and “Misogynist terrorism”, as well as further readings about the subject. However as this is just a summary it is important to read the extended article. “Although these findings are tentative, this study has shown that the radicalization pipeline for Incel-related content likely exists, influential videos with more followers have the potential to disseminate radicalized ideas, and some YouTube channels link innocuous videos to radicalized ideology.”
2021