{"id":62752,"date":"2018-03-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-03-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/foxtail\/2018\/03\/05\/irl-holding-social-algorithms-accountable\/"},"modified":"2018-03-05T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-03-05T00:00:00","slug":"irl-holding-social-algorithms-accountable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/firefox\/irl-holding-social-algorithms-accountable\/","title":{"rendered":"Why we need to hold algorithms accountable"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Wednesday, Feb. 14, David Hogg survived the unthinkable, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2018\/02\/15\/us\/florida-shooting-victims-school\/index.html\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">the devastating shooting<\/a> at his school, Margery Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Florida. He and his peers become <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buzzfeed.com\/remysmidt\/heres-what-its-like-at-the-headquarters-of-the-teens\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">outspoken gun control advocates overnight<\/a>. Within a week, however, online searches for the 17-year-old <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2018\/2\/21\/17035872\/youtube-trending-conspiracy-parkland-david-hogg\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">suggested otherwise<\/a> when a top video in YouTube&#8217;s &#8220;Trending&#8221; tab falsely alleged that Hogg was a paid crisis actor. The video, created by a conspiracy theorist, racked up 200,000 views before it was pulled down.<\/p>\n<p><iframe frameborder='0' height='200px' scrolling='no' seamless src='https:\/\/embed.simplecast.com\/afafa89f?color=f5f5f5' width='100%'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>YouTube\u2019s Trending tab is curated by algorithms, not people. But an algorithm is <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/internetcitizen\/2018\/02\/05\/irl-face-the-future\/\">only as good as its programming lets it be<\/a>. And programmers are, after all, only human. Every algorithm reveals their specific, human intent. In the case of YouTube Trending, that intent is simply to help you find content, by showing you what\u2019s popular. When algorithms like these fail, they reveal something else besides intent: our own blind spots and biases. <\/p>\n<p>On this week\u2019s episode of <a href=\"https:\/\/irlpodcast.org\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">IRL<\/a>, we sit down with <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lukedormehl?lang=en\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Luke Dormehl<\/a>, author of <em>Thinking Machines<\/em> and <em>The Formula<\/em>, to explore the impact of algorithms, on and offline. Staci Burns and <a href=\"http:\/\/jamesbridle.com\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">James Bridle<\/a>, author of <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@jamesbridle\/something-is-wrong-on-the-internet-c39c471271d2\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cSomething Is Wrong On The Internet\u201d<\/a>, investigate the human cost of gaming YouTube recommendations.  Anthropologist <a href=\"http:\/\/nickseaver.net\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Nick Seaver<\/a> talks about the danger of automating the status quo. Researcher <a href=\"https:\/\/www.technologyreview.com\/s\/610275\/meet-the-woman-who-searches-out-search-engines-bias-against-women-and-minorities\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Safiya Noble<\/a> looks at how to prevent racial bias from seeping into code. And Allegheny County\u2019s Department of Children and Family Services shows us how transparent algorithms can help save lives. <\/p>\n<p>Now, more than ever, it\u2019s up to us to push for accountability. Because when bad code spreads disinformation and bias, it\u2019s never something that \u201cthe algorithm did.\u201d It\u2019s something people did. That means we can still take charge of our algorithms. After all, they\u2019re here to serve us, and not the other way around. <a href=\"https:\/\/irlpodcast.org\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Listen to this week\u2019s episode to lean more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Wednesday, Feb. 14, David Hogg survived the unthinkable, the devastating shooting at his school, Margery Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Florida. He and his peers become outspoken gun control advocates overnight. Within a week, however, online searches for the 17-year-old suggested otherwise when a top video in YouTube&#8217;s &#8220;Trending&#8221; tab falsely alleged that Hogg [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1521,"featured_media":20720,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why we need to hold algorithms accountable<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When bad code spreads disinformation and bias, it\u2019s never something that \u201cthe algorithm did.\u201d It\u2019s something people did.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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