YouTube is a cultural behemoth.

It's the second biggest website on the internet after Google and is watched by people across the world for over a billion hours a day.

But what effect is it having on us as individuals, and on our society?

Tech journalist Chris Stokel-Walker charts the video sharing website's rise from an idea in a computer engineering student’s bedroom to a platform with a reach far greater than the BBC and all other television networks put together.

Chris meets one of the internet’s original vloggers, talks to an early YouTube celebrity and finds out what it’s like to become famous on YouTube in 2020.

He also explores the dark side of the website. In the past 18 months, YouTube has been accused of driving political extremism and giving credence to conspiracy theories and fake news.

How did one simple design decision taken by higher ups at the company help fuel those accusations?

Chris talks to an ex-YouTube insider who helped build the algorithm that lies at the centre of that decision.

We hear from an American teenager who says watching videos on the website was the reason he became a far-right radical. And we talk to an academic whose research helped uncover a shocking and terrible secret that forced YouTube to reckon with its fiercest critics.

Producer: Joe Sykes

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in February 2020. Show less