When groups can filter their news by ideological persuasion, the long-term tendency is toward increased polarization and decreased consensus. Individuals’ interpretations of the world get amplified and not challenged; the common ground of social agreement shrinks.

Within online communities, this produces a strong pressure towards conformity with the values and mores of one’s peers. But even peer conformity is no safeguard, because anyone can see into it. The potential audience for anything posted on the internet is the entire internet. The only way to conform successfully on the internet is to be unutterably