Breaking the cycle of online self-radicalization

Helping friends escape the alt-right pipeline is often achieved through open dialogue

NewsKira Minall — Published March 18, 2025 4 minutes

Robby Fischer has been granted a pseudonym for privacy concerns.

Sucked down the alt-right pipeline after experiencing a breakup, Fischer said his friend began spreading hateful content on his social media platforms and reposting content from alt-right influencers, such as Andrew Tate and Jordan Peterson, on his Instagram story.

Fischer, whose views did not align with those of his friend, was growing increasingly uncomfortable with the influx of hateful posts on his friend’s feed, and halted their friendship.

“We had a whole fight break out, basically just about how I really didn't like the stuff he had posted,” Fischer said. “It was partially in character for him, but it also happened so quickly, and it was full-blown in your face.”

The alt-right pipeline—also known as the alt-right rabbit hole—is a concept that describes how algorithms are manipulated by alt-right extremists, leading people to internet radicalization via alt-right content and ideologies. The ideas it promotes are often hateful and target minorities, and due to the nature of algorithms, people often get trapped in the pipeline due to the formation of echo chambers.

White supremacist movements often target teenage boys and young men. Frédéric Dion, a high school English teacher and esports team coach, says this is because they are at an age where their sense of self has not fully crystallized yet.

“These guys are kind of seeking identity as they are learning to discover who they are as males, and they are searching for role models,” Dion said.

According to Abu Saleh Mohammad Sowad, a doctoral candidate in social and cultural analysis at Concordia University, people fall down the alt-right pipeline as a reactionary response to an overall feeling of insecurity.

Sowad says that alt-right influencers present an unrealistic dream of being rich and successful, owning luxurious cars, and having a traditional wife and children, among many other characteristics. When young men have difficulties obtaining such markers of success, Sowad adds, alt-right preachers take advantage of their vulnerability to blame society for their struggles.

“At the end of the day, everyone wants to be comfortable in their life, and that is what is being exploited by the alt-right,” Sowad said. “They will never tell their followers it is their fault but rather will say things like ‘You deserve it, but you are not getting it because society is messed up.’”

Sowad adds that due to certain societal changes regarding women’s rights, some young men feel a loss of control.

“Women had to be dependent on their male partner for so many reasons, but now they don't have to,” he said. “So, they have this independence that we all support, but it makes some men feel like they have no power over their own lives anymore.”

According to Sowad, solving the phenomenon of the alt-right pipeline is not an easy task. He says that since the digital world cannot be changed, teaching children digital literacy in schools from a young age is a good place to start. Moreover, he says it is important to teach children that although inequality exists and can be an obstacle in some situations, it is not always the main reason why some people aren’t able to obtain certain achievements.

On a more personal level, Sowad says that there are ways to show that there are different models of success.

“One way to help someone close to you is to show them that other kinds of masculinity exist in the world,” he said. “So, if you can establish for them that these other options are also valid options, they can compare which one seems better for them.”

For Dion, a good way of preventing young boys from falling into the pipeline is by unpacking certain topics through discussion. He says conversations like this happen frequently when he coaches the esports team.

“The players started getting really comfortable around me and using the language they would use when they weren't around me playing the game, and then I could say  ‘Whoa, listen, man, that's not OK, and have these discussions with them,” Dion said.

Fischer, who recently experienced a second friend turning toward hateful rhetoric online, says that offering compliments was an effective way of helping them begin to see things differently.

“It makes them feel better about themselves,” Fischer said, “and they're not going to be as reliant on the opinions of people like Jordan Peterson and Andrew Tate who feed into this sort of idealized version of themselves that just is not real.”

This article originally appeared in Volume 45, Issue 11, published March 18, 2025.