Half of all American adults say they sometimes get their news from social media.

At the same time, almost two-thirds say they view social media as a bad thing for democracy.

Which raises the question, what responsibility the social media companies bear for our

divided political climate?

Judy Woodruff explores that question as part of her ongoing series, America at a crossroads.

Social media was my sad little life.

I was a, you know, far right, radical, crazy young person

who was a jerk. My personality was not pleasant. Less

than a decade ago Katie McHugh was a prominent figure in the online world of

far-right extremism. She was a writer and editor at the deeply conservative

publication, Bright Bart, where she was especially known for her vitriolic tweets. Whenever I was saying the really vile racist things that went viral, you find other right-wing people on social media on Twitter and you follow each other, you boost each other and then the network just expands and you say outlandish things to push the conversation that way.

So you have this the real-time interaction, real-time radicalization.

McHugh has since real-time interaction, real-time radicalization.

McHugh has since rejected the far right.

Today, she worries about her address being revealed,

which is why we agreed to interview her in this hotel room.

Some of her viral tweets are still well known.

I'm quoting funny how Europeans assimilated, unlike third worlders,

demanding welfare while raping, killing Americans.

Yes, that's what we believed.

They're taking our money, our taxes, people of color will rape the white women.

He wrote, it's important to keep families together.

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