platforms. Referring to her research on election disinformation, the Syrian civil war, and conspiratorial explanations of mass shootings, Starbird told NPR in 2021: “Over and over again, YouTube is the dominant domain in those conversations [on social media]. It's not Facebook. They're all pulling in content from YouTube.”48 Monetizing content Whether one seeks to hawk workout tips or an ideological agenda, certain YouTube features, or affordances, facilitate finding a loyal audience—and potentially profiting in the process. YouTube “creators” can use an ordinary smart phone to record themselves and then upload the video to a self-created YouTube channel. Other YouTube users may subscribe to the channel free of charge. After accumulating 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 annual “watch hours,” a creator may apply to YouTube’s Partner Program and, if approved, begin receiving a portion of revenue generated by advertising. Typically, the creator receives up to 55% of the revenue, with the company retaining about 45%. The ads are sold and distributed by Google’s AdSense service and placed immediately before or after the creator’s videos.49 The extent to which creators can “monetize” video content sets YouTube apart from other platforms, which provide money-making opportunities but on a smaller scale. YouTube creators who have tens of thousands of subscribers can clear five figures a year; those with hundreds of thousands or millions can pocket six figures. Tim Pool: Hosting Far-Right Headliners YouTube creator Tim Pool provides a platform to far-right figures such as Alex Jones of Infowars and Enrique Tarrio of the Proud Boys. YouTube shares ad revenue with Pool, whose channels collectively have millions of subscribers. He also generates income by selling merchandise and holding Super Chats, which allow viewers of live-stream videos to pay to have their comments posted prominently. The day before the January 6 assault on the Capitol, fans of Timcast IRL paid modest amounts to elevate comments such as, “Prepare yourselves - the wicked and immoral will be annihilated — this is the only way” ($6.66) and “The time of war is here. Only a fool still has faith in the courts” ($4.99). In an email, Pool told us: “We don’t control what others say, and we can’t do anything about people’s free speech.” He added that his team has “worked with YouTube to deter calls for violence and extremism.” 10 HOW YOUTUBE SPREADS HARMFUL CONTENT – AND WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT IT Creators have money-making opportunities other than splitting ad revenue. In the Super Chat program, for example, they can offer viewers of live-stream videos the chance to pay modest amounts to have their written comments pinned to the top of the live-chat feed for a longer period of time. Creators typically keep 70% of this cash stream; YouTube takes 30%. “More creators than ever are earning money from our non-ads products like Super Chat,” Pichai, Google’s CEO, said during a conference call with industry analysts in February 2022.50 The typical YouTube aesthetic is do-ityourself TV: a performer who speaks directly to the audience with memes and video clips interspersed. Incurring negligible production costs, creators can foster an air of intimacy and credibility that is largely absent from platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Rebecca Lewis, a Ph.D candidate at Stanford in communications theory, has identified a populous network of conservative YouTube creators, ranging from mainstream Republicans to overt white supremacists, whose audiences overlap and share agendas such as attacking “woke” liberals and revealing imaginary “deep state” conspiracies. They visit like-minded channels and amplify each other’s content, Lewis observes.51 YouTuber Tim Pool exemplifies the “micro-celebrity” methods Lewis describes. A creator in his mid-thirties who initially gained attention by livestreaming the 2011 left-wing Occupy Wall Street protests, Pool in recent years has often used his YouTube appearances and interviews to amplify divisive right-wing conspiracy theories.52 Appearing in a trademark black knit hat, Pool operates a network of at least five YouTube channels, which in total boast millions of subscribers. Recent video titles include: “Leaked Emails Implicate Biden Family in UKR [Ukraine] Biolab Scandal, Media Caught Lying” and “Vaccine Passport Chip Implants Are Real, Alex Jones Right AGAIN As More Cities Declare Vax Mandates.”53 He has hosted Jones and Enrique Tarrio, the former chairman of the Proud Boys, a violent hard-right group. Tarrio and