# Online platforms are fragmenting shared reality

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/online-platforms-are-fragmenting-shared-reality/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Konstantin Kisin](https://realalpha.app/people/konstantin-kisin/) · Political & Social Commentator
- Host: [Steven Bartlett](https://realalpha.app/people/steven-bartlett/) · Host, The Diary Of A CEO
- Show: The Diary Of A CEO
- Episode: [US ELECTION DEBATE: What Trump’s Return REALLY Means For The World! Is The UK About To Collapse?](https://realalpha.app/v/qpBnYB0I6_0/), Jan 23, 2025
- Moment: 1:16:19 to 1:24:10 of the episode (8 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/online-platforms-are-fragmenting-shared-reality/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/qpBnYB0I6_0/?t=4579

## Quote

> “It's a **technological issue**. We're living through, probably already have lived through most of the digital revolution.”
> — [Konstantin Kisin](https://realalpha.app/people/konstantin-kisin/) at [1:17:47](https://realalpha.app/v/qpBnYB0I6_0/?t=4667) · The Diary Of A CEO

## Takeaways

1. People can find online communities that reinforce extreme views.
2. Bots and algorithms make it harder to know what content reflects real people.
3. Identity verification could curb bots but raises privacy and safety concerns.

## About this segment

The panel links social feeds, bots and AI-generated content to people living in separate information bubbles. They debate identity checks and platform rules, while acknowledging the trade-offs and risks.

From “US ELECTION DEBATE: What Trump’s Return REALLY Means For The World! Is The UK About To Collapse?”, Jan 23, 2025. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/qpBnYB0I6_0/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[1:16:27](https://realalpha.app/v/qpBnYB0I6_0/?t=4587) just the amount of social networks that have emerged. In the last 10 years, there's been a 50% increase so far in new social networks that have emerged. And we're seeing this splintering now of the rumbles, the blue skies, the threads. And it almost seems, talking about echo chambers, that social networks are becoming sort of political environments. And you're choosing your social network now based on your politics. This doesn't seem like a net positive thing for society no no I think we're living through an era of the fragmentation of our reality and it comes you know Scott's point about people behaving better in person is true although I would say there is the windscreen effect or the windshield effect which is if you someone cuts you up in traffic and you feel that there's some kind of physical separation between the two of you

[1:17:15](https://realalpha.app/v/qpBnYB0I6_0/?t=4635) most people behave slightly differently in that context than they would if they were sitting next to somebody face to face in a bar. So it's it's there's something about being physically present with other people that changes it, which is one of the reasons, you know, I know you have pretty much all your interviews face to face and we do as well, because I generally speaking, it's very difficult to connect authentically with people. Obviously, we've managed to do it in the course of this conversation, but beyond that, it's difficult. And so we're going to have to work on that. But the point I'm trying to make is this isn't a political issue. It's not an X issue. It's not an Elon Musk issue. It's a technological issue. We're living through, probably already have lived through most of the digital revolution. And I used to, as a kid, love Isaac Asimov science

[1:18:04](https://realalpha.app/v/qpBnYB0I6_0/?t=4684) fiction books. And one of the reasons I did enjoy reading them so much is it was a world in which there was an exploration of what does the creation of robots, which is what we're living through, mean for morality? What does it mean for philosophy? What does it mean for humanity? What does it mean for, how do we build rules in a world in which you have these machines that take every rule literally and suddenly you find that, you know, the desire to protect humanity results in the end of humanity.

[1:18:37](https://realalpha.app/v/qpBnYB0I6_0/?t=4717) How do you navigate all of this? And that is what we're living through. We are also living through a period when our realities are being fragmented. And so we believe a very small set of things that other people like us somewhere in a very different part of the world, as Daniel was saying earlier, also believe. And we now live in this, we don't live in England or in Scotland or in America. We live almost like in a world of people who think like us in the West.

[1:19:09](https://realalpha.app/v/qpBnYB0I6_0/?t=4749) and then other people live right next door to us who live in a whole different world because they consume a whole different set of information. That is the reality. We can complain about it. That is not going to change. And the only thing I really want to raise where I disagree with Scott about this idea that Facebook and X, et cetera, are they are publishers and not platforms. I don't think you can apply the same media organization section to them.

[1:19:45](https://realalpha.app/v/qpBnYB0I6_0/?t=4785) It just, I don't think it's appropriate. They are platforms in which people publish information. The artificial amplification is a fair point. We need to deal with that. We need to deal with the bot problem. That's a very difficult one because one of the challenges is the only way to really deal that I can see with the bot problem is to get people to verify their identity online, that obviously has a lot of questions around that because once you start forcing people to give their identity over to some anonymous blob online, who's collecting that data?

[1:20:20](https://realalpha.app/v/qpBnYB0I6_0/?t=4820) What are they doing with it? And, you know, if you don't like Elon Musk or if you don't like the previous Twitter regime, as I didn't, then the question for you is, well, you know, let's say right now I look at Twitter and I'm like, yeah, I'm happy to verify my identity. I'm happy to confirm who I am. Well, what if, you know, George Soros buys X off Elon at some point? Are you still happy that that information is being held?

[1:20:45](https://realalpha.app/v/qpBnYB0I6_0/?t=4845) Are you still happy that the anonymous account you've now made confirmed? You know, what happens to the anonymous activists speaking about the Ayatollah's regime in Iran? What happens to them when they've had to verify their identity and the wrong person buys that platform or someone hacks it, etc.? So it's a conversation that's not – if there were easier solutions on these issues, they would have been solved by now.

[1:21:09](https://realalpha.app/v/qpBnYB0I6_0/?t=4869) This is a very difficult thing for humanity to navigate, and we're going to have to find a way to do it, and incrementally so. I just want to respond to that. I think you're guilty of the same illusion of complexity that protects these companies from acting like actors such that they can do anything regardless of the damage to the commonwealth to add shareholder value. if you implemented we have first off this notion that you don't want to give up your identity trust me they know everything about you Constantine already and I could go get a ton of information on you from the dark web fairly easily with a credit card so the notion that it somehow we shouldn't have some sort of you could have we need age verification for social media there's no reason And anyone in the age of 16 should be on a social media platform.

[1:21:55](https://realalpha.app/v/qpBnYB0I6_0/?t=4915) And regarding the civil rights activists or the women's rights activists that needs an anonymity, you could create a number of accounts and use blockchain or some sort of third-party anonymous to have a certain number of accounts that says, look, if you want an anonymous parody account, you want to make fun of people, fine. If you want an account talking about issues that you feel are sensitive from other markets, fine.

[1:22:19](https://realalpha.app/v/qpBnYB0I6_0/?t=4939) We could we could absolutely figure that out and then figure out, OK, this account is doing nothing. It has no base. It has no soul. It has no values. It has 72 followers. All it's doing is trying to start fights online. All it's doing is trying to make people feel shitty about Britain or shitty about America. And the reality is these companies use that illusion of complexity such that they can have more bots creating more fake clicks, more Nissan.

[1:22:45](https://realalpha.app/v/qpBnYB0I6_0/?t=4965) that's a more shareholder value. I think there's a middle ground here. I think we could figure this out. I agree. Well, that's what I'm saying. I think some of the ideas that you're putting forward, right or wrong, I don't know. But these are the conversations we should be having. How do we make sure? I mean, my son is two and a half years old. And if my wife has become a complete screen Nazi, so he's probably not going to get a phone until he's about 40.

[1:23:10](https://realalpha.app/v/qpBnYB0I6_0/?t=4990) But I think your point about people shouldn't be on social media. Yes, wait. People shouldn't be on social media until they're 16. Absolutely correct. What that's doing to the minds of, well, or everybody, but particularly young people who are really susceptible to it. You're completely right. The verification dimension is difficult, as I say. We're going to have to hash this all out as humanity. We're just going to have to work this all out.

[1:23:36](https://realalpha.app/v/qpBnYB0I6_0/?t=5016) How do we live in this new world that we now live in? It's going to take some time, and I hope it's not as bad as the last time the information space was revolutionized, which was the printing press. That caused about two centuries of religious war. Hopefully, we can avoid that. And part of the way to do that is to create environments which are uncensored, where people can express different ideas.

[1:23:59](https://realalpha.app/v/qpBnYB0I6_0/?t=5039) We can have these battles and eventually come to some sort of mutual understanding. I hope that happens.