‘If I Sound Like a Conspiracy Nut…’: Dr. Phil Tells Ted Cruz Children Are Being ‘Targeted’ By Algorithms

Dr. Phil McGraw assured viewers that he’s “not a conspiracy nut” when he sat down for a meandering talk with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and conservative commentator Ben Ferguson about kids being targeted by social media.

“Well, a lot about it worries me because it’s, it’s not just that there’s competing information out there,” McGraw said. “Our children today — and if I sound like a conspiracy nut, let me tell you, I’m not a conspiracy nut — and I ask anyone that’s listening to my voice right now, I’ve — you said I’ve written nine books. That’s true. And, after I wrote the last one I told Robin, I’m not writing a tenth one until I write an autobiography and I’ll be so old that I won’t know what it says.”

He continued:

People don’t understand algorithms, including me. But I got myself in touch with experts that do understand algorithms, and, good example of what I’m talking about: Research was done where they put together some accounts, put a girl’s name on it, 14 years old, just her name, 14 years old, opened this account. And within a matter of a few hours, she started getting targeted with toxic information. By that, I mean, information that led her to eating disorder sites, suicidality sites, different kinds of things that were really unhealthy.

They said, “Woah, that’s really shocking.” And, so, they said, “Let’s push this a little further.” They opened another account with a name and just added a few words that said “weight loss.” The amount of toxic feed that went to her, content that went to her, went up multiplicatively within the first few hours. The algorithm picked up those words, and what they do is, they feed you what you will click on. So, it was like eight, 10 times more toxic information.

McGraw added, “And if you create chaos in a society, where do you start? You attack the children.”

Watch the clip above via Verdict With Ted Cruz.