algorithmic recommendation systems
Moderating borderline content while respecting fundamental values
October 30, 2024As efforts to identify and remove online terrorist and violent extremist content have intensified, concern has also grown about so‐called lawful but awful content. Various options have been touted for reducing the visibility of this borderline content, including removing it from search and recommendation algorithms, downranking it and redirecting those who search for it. This ...
From Bad to Worse: Algorithmic Amplification of Antisemitism and Extremism
October 29, 2024Do social media companies exacerbate antisemitism and hate through their own recommendation and amplification tools? We investigated how four of the biggest social media platforms treated users who searched for or engaged with content related to anti-Jewish tropes, conspiracy theories, and other topics. Three of them–Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter1 (now known as X after a ...
Combating radicalization by algorithm
September 14, 2024Many countries have formulated strategies to combat radicalization, and regulating and monitoring recommendations on social network platforms is part of these strategies. This article explores the concept of radicalization and the proposed causal link between recommendations and radicalization, highlighting some of the key characteristics of recommendation engines. Based on this background potential risk mitigation measures ...
Jacinda Ardern Calls for ‘Ethical Algorithms’ to Combat Online Extremism. What This Means
August 8, 2024VOX-Pol Blog Post. ...
Don’t Just Blame YouTube’s Algorithms for ‘Radicalisation’. Humans Also Play a Part
August 7, 2024VOX-Pol Blog Post. ...
YouTube Regrets: A crowdsourced investigation into YouTube’s recommendation algorithm
September 18, 2023Faced with YouTube’s continuous refusal to engage, Mozilla built a browser extension, RegretsReporter, that allows people to donate data about the YouTube videos they regret watching on the platform. Through one of the biggest crowdsourced investigations into YouTube, we’ve uncovered new information that warrants urgent attention and action from lawmakers and the public. We now ...
Content personalisation and the online dissemination of terrorist and violent extremist content
September 18, 2023We welcome the increased focus amongst policymakers on the role played by content personalisation and other algorithmic recommendation systems on online platforms. Such scrutiny is warranted. Terrorist groups exploit platforms that make use of recommendation algorithms, and there are examples of individuals coming into contact with terrorist and violent extremist content via platforms using content ...
Evaluating the scale, growth, and origins of right-wing echo chambers on YouTube
September 18, 2023Although it is understudied relative to other social media platforms, YouTube is arguably the largest and most engaging online media consumption platform in the world. Recently, YouTube’s outsize influence has sparked concerns that its recommendation algorithm systematically directs users to radical right-wing content. Here we investigate these concerns with large scale longitudinal data of individuals’ ...
Birds of a Feather Get Recommended Together: Algorithmic Homophily in YouTube’s Channel Recommendations in the United States and Germany
September 18, 2023Algorithms and especially recommendation algorithms play an important role online, most notably on YouTube. Yet, little is known about the network communities that these algorithms form. We analyzed the channel recommendations on YouTube to map the communities that the social network is creating through its algorithms and to test the network for homophily, that is, ...