ICE Is Turning Real Conflict Into Viral Content

Galaxy Brain

The Atlantic

Technology

4.5 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 January 2026

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode of Galaxy Brain, host Charlie Warzel speaks with the reporter Ryan Broderick about how the internet’s fragmentation of attention and facts has bled into real-world political violence in Minneapolis this month. From the viral spread of a right-wing video about day-care fraud in Minnesota to the aggressive ICE activity in the region that followed, the episode charts how online content routinely shapes government action and public perception. Broderick, who spent days in Minneapolis after the shooting of Renee Nicole Good, describes what he saw on the ground: how protesters and law enforcement are behaving differently this time around, especially with regard to filming and digital organizing. The conversation explores a novel and concerning feedback loop where what happens online spurs real-world interventions, which then generate more content for audiences elsewhere, compounding division and uncertainty about what’s true. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Atlantic subscribers also get access to exclusive subscriber audio in Apple Podcasts. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/Listener. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Ann Applebaum.
0:02.0	Over the past year, as I watched Donald Trump demand unprecedented new powers, I wondered,
0:08.0	don't he and his team fear that these same powers could one day be used by a different administration
0:14.0	and a different president to achieve very different goals?
0:18.0	Well, maybe they are afraid.
0:20.0	And maybe that's why they're using their new
0:22.6	tools to change our institutions, even to alter the playing field in advance of midterm elections
0:28.4	later this year, to make sure their opponents can't win. Ultimately, destroying trust is the
0:35.6	currency of autocrats.
0:45.8	We could win, but we are very, very, very likely to lose if we keep treating this as business as usual.
0:53.0	Reporting on the sweeping changes unfolding in our country and preparing you to think about what might happen next.
0:57.4	The new season of Autocracy in America, available now.
1:06.2	Even going back to Renee Good, the idea that there was an ICE agent that was filming well involved in this life or death,
1:11.6	you know, supposedly for him situation, right?
1:14.4	You're claiming that, but at the same time,
1:16.0	you're using your phone to document this.
1:18.2	I've never had a law enforcement agent pull up their person,
1:23.5	like, assumedly personal smartphone and film me. Like, I've never seen that. To have them just like, assumedly personal smartphone and film me.
1:28.3	Like, I've never seen that.
1:30.3	To have them just like have a gun in one hand and a phone in the other blew my mind.
1:34.3	I just have to wonder like where is that content going.
1:37.3	Like where are those photos and videos going?
	...

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