The Impact of the Data Algorithm Social Media Companies Collect
It is no secret that social media companies like Facebook or Twitter collect data to generate even more personalized content for the user. Facebook's strategy of data is to design videos that a user would like based off of previous liked content. The result of this can lead to "echo chambers" as I have mentioned in a previous post. The echo chambers can further become polarized in their views due to the algorithm furthering their bias. Algorithm is essentially one of the most powerful tools social media platforms have to influence users in decisions and thought processes.
However, the main issue of the argument is the fact that Facebook is not officially acknowledging the damage it has been doing to democracy and increasing misinformation. While Facebook has claimed it is doing everything in the right manner, there is a large opposition to that. The Facebook whistleblower, Frances Haugan who was a data scientist for Facebook, was aware that the platform chooses growth over putting in safeguards on its platforms (Haugan to Congress 2021). She released thousands of pages of evidence to support her case to U.S Congress and also addressed the EU Parliament. Haugan said she believed that Facebook could not stop the spread of vaccine misinformation, she thinks they only catch about 10-20% of the misinformation (Haugan 2021). Ultimately, Facebook algorithms pose serious threats to civil society in nations around the world, but specifically the U.S. Instead of bringing the majority of citizens closer, it can be argued they've done the opposite. Luckily the federal government has become aware of the growing threat and has started working on crafting laws combating the algorithm of Facebook. Such laws thought of is the KIDS (Kids Internet, Design and Safety) Act and the Filter Bubble Transparency Act. There is hope as lawmakers are for the most part working bipartisan to develop laws to be put in place. For now, it is important to be more aware of the potential dangers of algorithm manipulation that social media platforms possess.
Sources
Allyn, Bobby. 2021. “Here Are 4 Key Points from the Facebook Whistleblower’s Testimony on Capitol Hill.” NPR, October 5, 2021, sec. Technology. https://www.npr.org/2021/10/05/1043377310/facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen-congress.
Silberling, Amanda. 2021. “Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen Testifies before the Senate.” TechCrunch. October 5, 2021. https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/05/facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen-testifies-before-the-senate/.
We all know the power of cookies and algorithms. They show us what we want to see based on interactions with websites, comments, post and videos. This, like you said is a very innovative yet harmful way of providing media. If we interact with all things on one side of the political spectrum. That is all we will see. Not the other side and that is something that needs to be focused on.
ReplyDeleteWith political polarization remaining such a widespread issue in U.S. politics lately, I feel like we tend to brush over the algorithmic side of internet politics in many conversations about it. The fact that wild claims and conspiracies can be amplified by artificial means through platforms like Facebook is likely one of the causes we're experiencing such a divide in ideology. There have always been disagreements, but the promotion of such from a "higher power" like algorithms so social media companies can benefit seems very unsettling. I agree that legislation to watch such behavior by tech companies is a step in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteI like what you are covering here. Political polarization is a growing problem, partially because of the tech algorithms promoting only what users want to see. It is great for entertaining purposes, but not so much when it comes to actual new coverage and information exchange. Hopefully, we can see when media platforms are able to work around this to give more factual or fair coverage of important topics we need to be informed of.
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