[dryrun-2026-05-04] Confounding factors—including pre-existing homophily, cable-television exposure, partisan elite polarization, and demographic sorting—do not fully account for the observed growth in affective polarization, leaving room for algorithmic effects.

Guess et al. (2023) experimentally removed reshared content from Facebook feeds during the 2020 US election, substantially reducing political-news exposure but finding no detectable polarization effect. Resharing is the feature most associated with viral spread and algorithmic amplification on Facebook. Therefore, [conclusion #7]. (Warrant: Absence of polarization effects from removing the most algorithmically-amplified feature provides strong evidence the amplification mechanism is not a significant causal driver.)

• Guess et al. (2023) experimentally removed reshared content from Facebook feeds during the 2020 US election, substantially reducing political-news exposure but finding no detectable polarization effect.
• Resharing is the feature most associated with viral spread and algorithmic amplification on Facebook.

These are challenges this argument’s reasoning pattern must still withstand. Answering them on Isonomia strengthens the argument.

• Is the absence of positive evidence strong enough to justify concluding ¬A, or only to justify withholding belief in A?Open
• Is the absence of evidence due to absence of investigation rather than to A's being false?Open
• Could disconfirming or null findings have been suppressed, unpublished, or systematically under-reported (file-drawer / publication bias)?Open
• Has the investigative regime actually been adequate (well-funded, well-powered, well-designed) to detect E if A were true?Open
• Could A be true but produce only a weak signal that escapes detection at the prevailing statistical thresholds?Open

No one has cited this argument yet.

No arguments cite this one yet — no one has built on or contested it. That is an absence of engagement, not a finding of soundness. Build on or contest it on Isonomia to change that.