“Manufactured Division”: How Social Media Is Driving Anger and Polarization | Pivot

The deployment of National Guard troops, masked ICE agents, and aggressive raids in cities like Chicago and Portland are framed as fascist tactics that create a sense of internal enemies, intimidate communities, and generate viral images of cruelty—without meaningfully improving public safety.

Swisher and Galloway emphasize that platforms make more money when users are outraged and siloed; rage-inducing content about ICE abuses or culture-war issues is surfaced because it drives engagement and ad revenue, even though most Americans are less divided in real life than online feeds suggest.

From Apple and Google pulling ICE-tracking apps under government pressure, to Meta’s ineffective teen safety tools, to OpenAI’s initial opt-out stance on copyrighted content, the hosts argue that platforms consistently privilege growth and profit over user rights, children’s wellbeing, and creators’ ownership.

Galloway links Netflix’s global production arbitrage and the coming wave of generative AI to the erosion of well-paid behind-the-scenes jobs in LA (crew, costume, sound, animators), suggesting wealth and opportunity are being sucked from Southern California to Silicon Valley and global tax-haven production hubs.

Given strong evidence that mobile social media correlates with teen anxiety and depression, they argue for hard legal limits: no social media under 16 and no synthetic/AI relationships under 18, noting that parental controls alone can’t work if every other kid is still on the platforms.