Former MoveOn.org Executive Director Eli Pariser (a name you may recognize from your inbox) explains how sites such as Facebook and Google are quietly creating a personalized Internet that removes content that may be challenging, uncomfortable or important.

Pariser has written a book on the subject called “The Filter Bubble,” and breaks down the idea in the TED talk below. In one troubling example, he has two demographically similar friends Google the word Egypt. One gets news about the revolution while the other gets travel-themed results and nothing about political upheaval.

TED via Lifehacker: