Facebook and Google aren’t that interested in putting social content in front of you that will broaden your horizons or introduce you to a diversity of viewpoints. They’re interested in finding out what you like and then putting as much of that stuff in front of you as possible. In recent years these companies have put some guardrails around the kinds of content they’ll use for that, but the main idea is still the same.
Furthermore, the algorithms tech companies use to curate content live in a black box. They’re a secret, even though their work can have serious social and political consequences. A new project by the nonprofit tech watchdog news site The Markup called the Citizen Browser Project hopes to demystify those algorithms, and maybe explain why I see a completely different Facebook than my neighbor does.
“Social media platforms are the broadcasting networks of the 21st century,” says The Markup‘s editor-in-chief, Julia Angwin. “They dictate what news the…
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Source : fastcompany.com
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