The violent federal occupation of Minneapolis – and the subsequent killings of two residents at the hands of immigration agents – began with a vlog. Nick Shirley, a roving 23-year-old with a smartphone and a taste for outrage, made a YouTube video with unfounded allegations of fraud at daycares operated by the local Somali American community. Like so much partisan media in history, he was trying to rile up the right-wing base. But he was also playing to another audience: the algorithm.
When I wrote about Shirley in early January, I described him as an influencer – a catch-all term that could be applied to a wide range of people, anyone fro …
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