**This talk has been cancelled**

Abstract: The lecture will take an epistemological look at the phenomenon of echo chambers. In public reception, echo chambers are held responsible for all kinds of problematic developments, most notably the growing polarization of some democracies and the radicalization of some social groups, for example the adherents of problematic conspiracy theories. In recent research, this picture has become controversial. For instance, Jennifer Lackey has recently argued that echo chambers are epistemically unproblematic, while empirical research has raised voices doubting that echo chambers exist at all or have a significant prevalence. I will address both lines of argument in this talk. First, I will reject Lackey’s theoretical objection to the epistemic problem of echo chambers. Then, I will use the empirical findings to motivate a paradigm shift in thinking about echo chambers, which I can, however, only sketch in broad brushstrokes.