Much remains unknown about recommender systems and their alleged promotion of extremist content. I am not sure whether even people at Google fully understand the dynamics in YouTube. Here is one recent paper:
So while it seems that blindly relying on algorithms may indeed push people toward niche/extremist/pseudo-science/etc. content, people are more likely end to these rabbit holes through links posted on other websites, including social media. That is, some people deliberately want to consume such content.
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2302.11225.pdf
So while it seems that blindly relying on algorithms may indeed push people toward niche/extremist/pseudo-science/etc. content, people are more likely end to these rabbit holes through links posted on other websites, including social media. That is, some people deliberately want to consume such content.
But as said, much remains unclear.