The trouble with algorithms and ways to solve it- part I
Md. Fakrul Islam Chowdhury writes for DOT
Anyone browsing the internet must have come across the “viral contents” of Conspiracy theorists that link the Facebook, CIA and the Rothschilds to the Vatican, Hollywood, the Nazis, the Illuminati and aliens in order to explain that climate change is a hoax, the Holocaust never happened, Obama and Trump are aliens, there is an alien colony in Mars where people abducted from Earth are being used as slaves, or the world is run by pedophiles, Satanists and cannibals.
On the other hand, there have been widespread dissemination of fake news, propaganda, hyper-partisan contents, and fake news stories and opinion along personalized, custom made ideological lines generated and spread by partisan groups, third party agencies, even foreign intelligence agencies to collude with their local partners to influence elections, for example, 2016 US presidential election, Brexit referendum and 2018 Bavaria elections to name a few.
The political influencers and the conspiracy theorists have launched an all-out information war across Europe. It expanded from the US to Europe and the UK at rapid speed, hijacking political debates on social media as well as mass protests in the streets in recent months.
They both have one thing in common. They both have run increasingly sophisticated campaigns around critical junctions in national, regional and global politics, relying on and deploying the algorithms used by the social media platforms and the business models of the tech firms that own those social media platforms that are geared to maximise the time users spend on their platforms.
The architecture of social media platforms plays into the hands of extreme fringe groups by pushing users towards sensationalist contents that push the audience in not only forming but more importantly, reinforcing their opinions on important socio-political issues thus influencing their actions such as voting in a certain way in elections. The ideological echo chambers thrive on Facebook and other social media platforms where the news feed algorithm is designed to surface the content most relevant and appealing to you.
Guardian has last month run an article where it showed that The QAnon community, an increasingly influential conspiracy theorists community, which began on the message-board site 4chan, strongly overlaps with the support networks of far-right movements such as the EDL and Pegida.
According to the Guardian report, “Most recently, it co-opted yellow vest demonstrations and boosted hardline Brexit campaigns and Tommy Robinson protests. By injecting conspiratorial narratives into these movements, its members can leverage existing networks and alter their political direction.”
The writer is Consulting Editor, Amader Notun Shomoy