Twitter's algorithm helps right-wing parties: research

Ground Report | New Delhi: Twitter's algorithm helps right-wing; A study by Twitter found that tweets from right-wing parties and broadcasters were more prominent than those from the left. The social media giant says it found out when it began researching how Twitter's algorithm presents political content to users. But Twitter admits it doesn't know why, and the question is more complicated.

Twitter's algorithm helps right-wing

In the past, Twitter has been accused of being anti-conservative. The study looked at tweets from political parties and consumer broadcasters in seven countries about sharing content. These countries include Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.

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It reviewed millions of tweets between April 1 and August 15, 2020. Researchers in this study tried to find out which tweets were the most prominent in terms of algorithms.

He found that algorithms made the tweets of right-leaning political parties and broadcasters more prominent than those of left-leaning ones.

Roman Chaudhry, a Twitter director, says the company's next step is to find out why. Researchers believe this may be due to differences in the strategies adopted by political parties to reach consumers.

He also says his research does not show that his algorithm has "advanced extremist ideologies more than mainstream ideas." This is not the first time that Twitter has detected bias in its algorithm.

META's transparency

Twitter's Meta team — made up of some of the more well-known tech and algorithm ethicists and critics — promised to share their research with the public as it evolves into a powerhouse unit as one of Twitter's 2021 priorities. But it's difficult to actually share that research with the world; Chowdhury and Lindsey McCallum, spokespersons for Twitter who work closely with the Meta team, described an intense process of debate about the word and phrase of each line in today's statement.

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While they insist there is widespread internal support for META's transparency, Chowdhury and McCallum are concerned about miscommunication blatantly mistaking the complex science behind the research. They know that news articles – like this one – are easily misinterpreted, and the final takeaway for most people is a very diluted version of research.

Facebook has come under heavy fire for failing to share the findings of its own social media research in a series of leaks last month in the Wall Street Journal. The company seems particularly dismayed at how the media and politicians have interpreted the leaked findings, and for emphasizing the limitations of the researchers' work. While he did not mention Facebook, Choudhury and his team have put in a lot of effort to explain the newly published paper.

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