Social media has established a place for all kinds of communities and people. It has created an environment that supports meeting like-minded individuals and sharing your thoughts with them, especially in political spaces. It seems like, especially on TikTok and YouTube, it has become very common to stumble across political content occasionally, even if it is content that one does not usually interact with. Due to the increase in popularity of this content, people have even begun to debate online, whether in a video or live stream. This inspired one of the most popular channels on the internet, Jubilee, known for bringing different kinds of people together to discuss opposing opinions, to begin producing debate content of their own. In the channel’s most popular series, “Surrounded,” one individual represents one side of the political spectrum, while 20 other participants represent the opposing viewpoint. This was done to create a healthy environment for debate and establish understanding on both ends of the political spectrum. But this style of content may be more harmful than the channel ever intended it to be.  

In the series “Surrounded,” some guests have included well known political creators such as Sam Seder, Charlie Kirk, Candace Owens, Mehdi Hasan and others. In these videos, discussions tend to get a little heated. At a certain point, it is no longer a passionate debate, but turns to flat out disrespect, causing bigoted remarks to be thrown at opposing participants. This can be seen most clearly in the video “1 Progressive vs. 20 Far-Right Conservatives (ft. Mehdi Hasan)” in which Hasan mentions his status as an immigrant. The conservative across from him interrupts to firmly state “Get the h— out!” This remark remains in the final version of the video, and the conservative is not removed from the discussion. In this same video, another conservative proudly declares that he “doesn’t care about being called a Nazi” and stated he is a fan of Carl Schmitt, a Nazi-theoretician. Later in the debate, Hasan stated that this individual’s plans for an ideal government sounded eerily like fascism, and the individual’s only reply was to laugh and state “Yeah, I am.” Once again, the channel did not stop the video to intervene, deescalate or remove the individual. The individual did receive backlash online after the video’s publication, but the channel never properly addressed giving a platform to someone, initially labeled as a far-right conservative, who happily aligns with fascist and Nazi ideologies.  

The video featuring Hasan is not a one-off experience either. In the same series, during the video entitled “1 Progressive vs. 20 Trump Supporters (ft. Sam Seder),” Seder debates an individual who flat out asks “What’s wrong with xenophobic nationalism?” Seder is slightly stunned at the question, and his opponent continues to speak about the “dominant culture” of the United States. When he finally cuts her off to ask, “You’re saying that Trump is good for those who want a dominant white, European culture?” she responds, “I mean, that’s what America is.” Yet again, the channel operators do absolutely nothing to manage what is being said to avoid promoting dangerous, bigoted extremism. At another point in the video, Seder states that “government agencies don’t pay taxes. Government agencies are funded by the government,” in response to the argument that government agencies benefit from the tax cuts they receive from the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: which, according to the Internal Revenue Service, is untrue because government agencies do not pay income taxes. The individual responds to Seder’s factual argument stating, “That’s not true.” Jubilee allows this individual, along with several others, to spread misinformation without any sort of correction, furthering arguments that hold no basis of truth and expanding the divide between right and left. Allowing something like this to be published spreads misinformation on a wide scale, especially given the fact that the video currently has seven million views. 

The issue with this kind of content is it gives a platform to unchecked, extremist thinking with no regard for how it may impact the public sphere. The channel purposely includes these kinds of clips in videos to garner attention and, in turn, receive more monetary gain. The Jubilee organization does not care about creating healthy debate to lead to productive conversations; they care about money. If the channel genuinely cared for the impact its content made, they would check information before allowing it to be spread on a large scale. Furthermore, they would remove individuals that are spewing hatred that creates an unsafe environment for individuals who participate in and consume the content. To conclude, the channel’s political content has become extremely harmful, creating a platform for misinformation and hatred to spread, with no consideration for the impact it can have on a large scale.