58 newyork| november25–december8, 2019microtargeting,whereinsteadofhaving
onethingthateveryoneintheworldsees,
wehavepersonalizedcontentforeachindi-
vidual,andkeeppeoplemoreintheirlanes
andintheirbubbles,andnothaveasmuch
entertainmentthat cutsacrosstheentire
socialnetworkortheentireweb.In the
longrun,I thinkthat’s ledtothingslike
moreseparatistmovementsaroundthe
world,morepolarization.
Howhasmediacoverageofpolitics
changedsince2008,when youmadeyour
markasoneofthefoundersoftheHuff-
ingtonPost?
At HuffingtonPost,it waslessabout
sc oopsandjournalism.We weremoreof
anaggregator,andwe noticedat thetime
th atDiggwasa bigsourceof traffic.Dur-
ingtheprimaries,whenObamaandHill-
aryClintonwerecompeting,oneof the
th ingsthatwaskindof shockingto me was
how theDiggcommunitywashavingthis
hugeimpact.Whentherewasa storythat
was pro-Obama,it wouldquickly get
votedat thetopof Digg,becauseDigg’s
co mmunitylikedObama.Andwhenthere
was a storythatwaspro-Hillaryor that
ta lkedaboutHillaryin a positivelight,it
wouldgetdown-votedandburiedand
nevermakeit to thefrontof Digg.Some
mediaoutletsrealizedthatandwerestart-
ingto writecontentfor Digg—“Oh,Obama
was amazing,”and then,boom, 40 ,000
vi ewsto yourposts.That,to me, felt likean
early-warningsignof how mediawas
changing,thata communityandan algo-
rithmcombinedto makeit so thatHillary
couldn’twintheprimary andObama
co uld.I thinkthatdynamicwaspartlywhy
Obamawasableto winandthenulti-
matelybecomepresident.
Overtime,thatdynamichasgottenbig-
gerandbigger.It’swhy Bloomberg’s presi-
dentialcampaignprobablywon’t go any-
where.It ’s harderif you’rea boringcentrist
whodoesn’t havea strong,passionate com-
munity obsessedwithyouanda message
thatgetstorquedbyalgorithmsbecauseit
is ex citingorcrazyorinterestingorextreme
ornovel.Obamawasthisreallyinteresting
casebecausehewasverygoodwithpositive
messages,buthealsowasnovelasthefirstblackmajor-party nominee. Over time,
you’reseeingthese trends continue where
havinga fanaticalfandom behind you and
a messagethat drives engagement on plat-
formsgivesyouanadvantage if you’re try-
ingtorunforpresident.
Itsoundslikeyou’re making an argu-
mentthatthedress and its subsequent
success,andthereaction of platforms like
Facebookpushing for further microtar-
geting,ultimatelyresulted in Trump.
I mean,Trumpis part of it, butthere’s a
largermacrotrend that microtargetingis
botha causeanda result of. Theinternet
hashadthisfirst-order effectofgiving
everyonea voiceand connecting theworld.
Now, it’s havingthis second-ordereffect
thatwearestilltrying to understand.Is it
thatglobalismis going to be replacedwith
lots ofnationalistic movements?One
inflectionpointwas Trump beingelected.
Joyful, positivecontent^2 startedto be
replacedwithcritical, negative content.A
lotofthecontentthat started togo viral
wasmorepolarizing and combative.^3
Whyhastheright been so particularly
goodatowningsocial media in awaythe
liberalsandtheleft haven’t been?
I thinkthereare a few reasons.Oneis
thatSteveBannonwas trying to useBreit-
barttogetTrump elected. Inthebook
Devil’sBargain,there’s a passagethat says
thatwhenBreitbart was gettingoff the
ground,I spoketoBannon—whichI don’t
rememberbecause, at that time, whoknew
whoSteveBannon was?^4 And hewaslike,
I lovetheideathat it was aboutcommu-
nity,notabouttraffic. I was like,Ohmy
God,I inspiredSteve Bannon.
Ifyouwere incharge of the vastleft-
wing-mediacabal,what would theleftdo
tomakeitselfmore viral?
Basically,don’t burden yourselfwith
truth.Just make memes that participatein
thecultural wars.
Youworkedwith Andrew Breitbartat
theHuffingtonPost, too, right?
I did,yeah.
Youcouldmake a good case thatBreit-
bartwasthepublication that definedthe
2016 election.
Yeah.Theleft-wing sites andcentristmodel of web-publishing excellence. Dean
Baquet, the Times’ executive editor, has
remarked on its substantial journalistic
impact.) But it’ll probably always be known
for the memes. “The audience still isn’t
bored of quizzes,” Peretti says.When did you first see “the dress”?^1
I was out in a restaurant, and I was try-
ing to be polite and not look at my phone
and hanging out with my friends. And my
phone was vibrating, and people were
like, “Oh my God.” The restaurant I was
in, literally all the waiters were looking at
it. People were passing it around.
How long did that last?
The next morning, we just ran into a
stranger. They were like, “Oh, that was so
yesterday.” But the dress was a kind of per-
fect thing to catch fire at that moment. The
internet was less polarized and politicized,
and it had shifted to mobile fully so people
were looking at mobile devices. With the
dress, if you saw it on your phone and you
were with people, you could hold the phone
up and say, “What color is this?” Plus, in the
early days of BuzzFeed, our traffic would die
in the evening because people would watch
television or go out with their friends. Now,
with mobile, we see prime time for our con-
tent as the same as prime time for televi-
sion. People are sharing and looking at con-
tent later.
Have the conditions changed such that
something like the dress couldn’t happen
again?
I think it’s harder. One reason is I think
it made Facebook a little uncomfortable.
The algorithm was like, “This is the piece of
content everyone in the world should see.”
I think that scared Facebook a little bit, that
there could be a publisher that promotes a
piece of content that then its algorithm
feels like it needs to show to everyone in the
world. Today, there’s a fear of viral content—
you see this in China to an even greater
extent. The Chinese government is very
afraid of things that go viral, because it’s
something that they can’t control. And I
think even in the U.S. now, there’s more of
a moment of trying to control the internet.
Ironically, that has led to much more(^1) For a few days in (^23)
2015, this photo of
a dress—which looks
either blue and black
or white and gold,
depending on how
your eyes work—
seemed to restore
An early success was
horsemaning—
a photography trick
that went viral and
eventually made its way
to the Today show—
in which one person
poses with their head
obscured and another
exposes only their head,
giving the illusion of
decapitation.
FOOTNOTES
PHOTOGRAPHS: PREVIOUS SPREAD, PETER YANG/AUGUST. THIS SPREAD, SWIKED.TUMBLR.COM/BUZZFEED (DRESS); BUZZFEED (HEAD, DO
SSIER, TURNER); GEORGE ETHRIDGE/REDUX PICTURES (KACZYNSKI)