[kictanet] Is Facebook biased on its newsfeed? Did Mark Zuckerberg Just Open a Big Can of Worms?

Sat May 14 07:56:45 EAT 2016

I will explain why I am really passionate about this issue. Granted, there
are algorithms that Facebook have developed that we (not I) believe have
caused this mess. Personally, being a person who has worked on Data Science
I am a strong believer in the power of algorithms. And if the algorithm is
scewed from its own logic, it simply wont give people the content they need
- so we create perfect algorithms to get the job done. What screws things
up?

According to the Gizmodo article:

*These new allegations emerged after Gizmodo last week revealed details
about the inner workings of Facebook’s trending news team—a small group of
young journalists, primarily educated at Ivy League or private East Coast
universities, who curate the “trending” module on the upper-right-hand
corner of the site. As we reported last week, curators have access to a
ranked list of trending topics surfaced by Facebook’s algorithm, which
prioritizes the stories that should be shown to Facebook users in the
trending section. The curators write headlines and summaries of each topic,
and include links to news sites. The section, which launched in 2014,
constitutes some of the most powerful real estate on the internet and helps
dictate what news Facebook’s users—167 million in the US alone—are reading
at any given moment.*

My point here is that if the Algorithm was flawed it wont be able to make
sense of trending news in the first place. The points underlined (as
earlier stated) are a result of "data flaws" in the process, and the
process of tampering with the Machine Learning process.

So if facebook investigates this, they will:

   1. Assess the activity log.
   2. Try see who accessed what content and suppressed which content.
   3. Try find out why.
   4. Deal with the human element / issues.

There is also one major issue here. If the trending team is based in the US
for instance and the typical US citizen controls this content who has a
bias to what views should be aired. Well.. what should we expect?

On Sat, May 14, 2016 at 7:39 AM, Ali Hussein via kictanet <
kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

> So listers
>
> As a follow up this story Zuckerberg posted a response. Excerpts below:-
>
> Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg's Thursday night post
> <https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10102830259184701>, in which he
> belatedly addressed a Monday Gizmodo report alleging that Facebook has an
> anti-conservative bias -- see "Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely
> Suppressed Conservative News"
> <http://gizmodo.com/former-facebook-workers-we-routinely-suppressed-conser-1775461006> --
> is a rather curious display of damage control.
> [image: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.]Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
> Credit: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
>
> It's a short post, just 309 words, and it mostly says nothing -- opening
> as it does with "I want to share some thoughts on the discussion about
> Trending Topics" and quickly swerving into boilerplate Facebook Utopianism:
> "We believe the world is better when people from different backgrounds and
> with different ideas all have the power to share their thoughts...." And 62
> words into the post he even pulls out the mom card, as in, "We are one
> global community where anyone can share anything -- from a loving photo of
> a mother and her baby to intellectual analysis of political events."
>
> *Moms.* Moms are the best, aren't they? Wait, where were we?
>
> Oh right. Here, halfway into Zuckerberg's gentle musings, is where it gets
> a bit slippery and weird:
>
> This week, there was a report suggesting that Facebook contractors working
> on Trending Topics suppressed stories with conservative viewpoints. We take
> this report very seriously and are conducting a full investigation to
> ensure our teams upheld the integrity of this product.
>
> We have found no evidence that this report is true. If we find anything
> against our principles, you have my commitment that we will take additional
> steps to address it.
>
> So... "We have found no evidence that this report is true..." but Facebook
> is "conducting a full investigation" -- "conducting," present-tense. So
> Mark Zuckerberg is jumping to conclusions and making pronouncements ("We
> have found no evidence that this report is true" plants the seed that the
> Gizmodo report is false) while an investigation is ongoing -- without
> revealing how the investigation is being conducted, who's runnng the
> investigation, etc.
>
> Quick, look over here -- at the next paragraph!
>
> Read the rest:-
>
> http://adage.com/article/the-media-guy/mark-zuckerberg-ju/304000/
> The age old question on how much influence media should be allowed to have
> on people's social and political thoughts is now coming to the fore for
> this most influential platform. The critical part is the use of Algorithms
> to suppress 'undesirable' content.
>
> What do you think guys?
>
> *Ali Hussein*
> *Principal*
> *Hussein & Associates*
> +254 0713 601113 / 0770906375
>
> Twitter: @AliHKassim
>
> Skype: abu-jomo
>
> LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim
>
>
> "Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking
> what no one else has thought".  ~ Albert Szent-Györgyi
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On 12 May 2016, at 6:04 PM, jude mwenda via kictanet <
> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
>
> There is some substantial amount of literature pointing to biases in
> algorithms. Some good case in point is the use of recruitment algorithms by
> tech firms based in the valley[1] or Google's photo service that
> misrepresented people of color. These are basically societal and implicit
> biases taking up digital forms imo. There is also the other case where
> false positives are introduced by design to provide some semblance of
> pseudo-privacy. i.e when someone who has been receiving online baby
> recommendations on a service like Amazon finds motor oil embedded as one of
> the highly recommended picks. So yes they could be twisted to lie.
>
> [1].
> https://civic.mit.edu/blog/chelseabarabas/calculated-bias-the-pitfalls-and-potential-of-algorithmic-recruitment
>
> On 12 May 2016 at 10:43, Nanjira Sambuli via kictanet <
> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
>
>> Ali, response to that…of course there’s biased, no such thing as
>> ‘algorithmic neutrality’:
>> http://www.wired.com/2016/05/course-facebook-biased-thats-tech-works-today/
>>
>>
>> On 12 May 2016, at 16:21, kictanet-request at lists.kictanet.or.ke wrote:
>>
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>> Today's Topics:
>>
>>   1. Is Facebook biased on its newsfeed? (Ali Hussein)
>>   2. Re: Is Facebook biased on its newsfeed? (Ahmed Mohamed Maawy)
>>
>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 1
>> Date: Thu, 12 May 2016 16:52:08 +0300
>> From: Ali Hussein <ali at hussein.me.ke>
>> To: kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
>> Subject: [kictanet] Is Facebook biased on its newsfeed?
>> Message-ID: <94EF7EBE-92E4-43E7-BE18-3865ABC08F9C at hussein.me.ke>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>>
>> Listers
>>
>> This mail is coped from the Fortune.com <http://fortune.com> Data Sheet.
>>
>> The ?Trending? topics section of Facebook seems such a trivial thing, and
>> in many ways it is. It looks and feels like an afterthought?ironically, it
>> started as an attempt to copy Twitter?and many users probably don?t even
>> notice it?s there. But now, it has triggered a national discussion around
>> bias and the power of social platforms.
>>
>> In case you missed the brouhaha, it started with a report from Gizmodo
>> that profileda team of anonymous journalists working at Facebook who curate
>> the news that shows up in the Trending section. A subsequent report quoted
>> one of the journalists as saying the team routinely removed certain
>> right-wing political sites from the section, even when the social network?s
>> data showed they were trending.
>>
>> The revelation seemed harmless enough, at first: Journalists hired to
>> edit things were actually editing them! But the comment soon snowballed
>> into a debate over Facebook?s role in news consumption, and whether its
>> sheer size and influence brings with it some level of responsibility.
>>
>> Facebook responded to the story by saying that its policy is to remain as
>> neutral as possible editorially, and that it will look into reports of
>> misbehavior. Then it issued a second, even more heartfelt response, after
>> the Senate Commerce Committee sent a letter asking the company to answer
>> some questions around political influence and the Trending section.
>>
>> The real issue, of course, isn?t the tiny section of the Facebook home
>> page that follows trending topics. It?s the fact that the kind of editorial
>> selection those journalists engaged in is happening every minute of every
>> day on the main news feed, courtesy of the Facebook ranking algorithm. And
>> that algorithm, since it is programmed by human beings, inevitably contains
>> biases of all kinds.
>>
>> The bottom line is that Facebook is more than just a social network where
>> people exchange photos of their pets?it is the largest and most influential
>> media entity the world has ever seen. The sooner Facebook acknowledges
>> that, and becomes part of the discussion around how it can manage its
>> social responsibilities, the better off we will all be.
>>
>>
>> Ali Hussein
>> Principal
>> Hussein & Associates
>> +254 0713 601113 / 0770906375
>>
>> Twitter: @AliHKassim
>> Skype: abu-jomo
>> LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim
>>
>>
>> "Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking
>> what no one else has thought".  ~ Albert Szent-Gy?rgyi
>>
>> Sent from my iPad
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>> ------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 2
>> Date: Thu, 12 May 2016 17:20:30 +0300
>> From: Ahmed Mohamed Maawy <ultimateprogramer at gmail.com>
>> To: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
>> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Is Facebook biased on its newsfeed?
>> Message-ID:
>> <CAPZHszN5Wt3M2g0OzRrc0+AEAOaVNYy1T9PNnD0aom2rAm-4yA at mail.gmail.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>>
>> There are a number of elements at play here:
>>
>>   1. Obviously to a great degree this algorithm has massively helped
>>   Facebook. Not that I am totally on their side, what I mean to say is
>> that
>>   lets give credit where its due. Without this algorithm we would have
>> seen
>>   massive fallout and loss of klout. This is something Twitter did not
>> figure
>>   out so well. LinkedIn is still the place professionals like to hang out,
>>   but its not the place professionals like to stay. Just stating how it
>> came
>>   to be that Facebook is air and air is life (so to speak).
>>   2. If truly there is a bias to all this (which I am yes, yet to
>>   comprehend how this bias is visible) it can mean 2 things:
>>      1. Either content producers are not building influence better than
>>      those who rank at the top. Or
>>      2. If not, there is a genuine market opportunity in this gap.
>>
>> But algorithms are algorithms, and my experience developing algorithms
>> tells me computer algorithms can not easily be twisted to lie, especially
>> in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
>>
>> But these are all books on their own anyway.
>>
>> Just my 2 cents.
>>
>> On Thu, May 12, 2016 at 4:52 PM, Ali Hussein via kictanet <
>> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:
>>
>> Listers
>>
>> This mail is coped from the Fortune.com <http://fortune.com> <
>> http://fortune.com> Data Sheet.
>>
>> The ?Trending? topics section of Facebook seems such a trivial thing, and
>> in many ways it is. It looks and feels like an afterthought?ironically, it
>> started as an attempt to copy Twitter
>> <
>> http://link.fortune.com/click/6706588.20757/aHR0cDovL3RlY2hjcnVuY2guY29tLzIwMTQvMDEvMTYvZmFjZWJvb2stdHJlbmRpbmcv/55ba80258cc2b2e72d8b457aBf20eece1
>> >?and
>> many users probably don?t even notice it?s there. But now, it has
>> triggered
>> a national discussion around bias and the power of social platforms.
>>
>> In case you missed the brouhaha, it started with a report from Gizmodo
>> that
>> profiled
>> <
>> http://link.fortune.com/click/6706588.20757/aHR0cDovL2dpem1vZG8uY29tL3dhbnQtdG8ta25vdy13aGF0LWZhY2Vib29rLXJlYWxseS10aGlua3Mtb2Ytam91cm5hbGlzdHMtMTc3MzkxNjExNw/55ba80258cc2b2e72d8b457aB4ee70a20
>> >a
>> team of anonymous journalists working at Facebook who curate the news that
>> shows up in the Trending section. A subsequent report quoted one of the
>> journalists as saying the team routinely removed certain
>> <
>> http://link.fortune.com/click/6706588.20757/aHR0cDovL2dpem1vZG8uY29tL2Zvcm1lci1mYWNlYm9vay13b3JrZXJzLXdlLXJvdXRpbmVseS1zdXBwcmVzc2VkLWNvbnNlci0xNzc1NDYxMDA2/55ba80258cc2b2e72d8b457aBf141c2b3>
>> right-wing
>> political sites from the section, even when the social network?s data
>> showed they were trending.
>>
>> The revelation seemed harmless enough, at first: Journalists hired to edit
>> things were actually editing them! But the comment soon snowballed into a
>> debate over Facebook?s role in news consumption, and whether its sheer
>> size
>> and influence brings with it some level of responsibility.
>>
>> Facebook responded to the story
>> <
>> http://link.fortune.com/click/6706588.20757/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZmFjZWJvb2suY29tL3RzdG9ja3kvcG9zdHMvMTAxMDA4NTMwODIzMzc5NTg/55ba80258cc2b2e72d8b457aBf49ae890>
>> by
>> saying that its policy is to remain as neutral as possible editorially,
>> and
>> that it will look into reports of misbehavior. Then it issued a second,
>> even more heartfelt response, after the Senate Commerce Committee sent a
>> letter
>> <
>> http://link.fortune.com/click/6706588.20757/aHR0cDovL2dpem1vZG8uY29tL3NlbmF0ZS1nb3AtbGF1bmNoZXMtaW5xdWlyeS1pbnRvLWZhY2Vib29rLXMtbmV3cy1jdXJhdGktMTc3NTc2NzAxOA/55ba80258cc2b2e72d8b457aB1d911177>
>> asking
>> the company to answer some questions around political influence and the
>> Trending section.
>>
>> The real issue, of course, isn?t the tiny section of the Facebook home
>> page that follows trending topics. It?s the fact that the kind of
>> editorial
>> selection those journalists engaged in is happening every minute of every
>> day on the main news feed, courtesy of the Facebook ranking algorithm. And
>> that algorithm, since it is programmed by human beings, inevitably
>> contains
>> biases of all kinds.
>>
>> The bottom line is that Facebook is more than just a social network where
>> people exchange photos of their pets?it is the largest and most
>> influential
>> <
>> http://link.fortune.com/click/6706588.20757/aHR0cDovL3d3dy52b3guY29tLzIwMTYvNS8xMC8xMTY0MDE0MC9mYWNlYm9vay1tZWRpYS1pbmZsdWVuY2U/55ba80258cc2b2e72d8b457aBca65e309>
>> media
>> entity the world has ever seen. The sooner Facebook acknowledges that, and
>> becomes part of the discussion around how it can manage its social
>> responsibilities, the better off we will all be.
>>
>> *Ali Hussein*
>> *Principal*
>> *Hussein & Associates*
>> +254 0713 601113 / 0770906375
>>
>> Twitter: @AliHKassim
>>
>> Skype: abu-jomo
>>
>> LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim
>>
>>
>> "Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking
>> what no one else has thought".  ~ Albert Szent-Gy?rgyi
>>
>> Sent from my iPad
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform
>> for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
>> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
>> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and
>> development.
>>
>> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
>> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
>> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
>> not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> *Ahmed Maawy*
>> Executive Director - SwahiliBox / M-Power (CBO)
>> Ambassador - Open Knowledge
>> Director - Startup Grind Mombasa
>> Software Developer - AJ+ / EveryLayer
>> (KE) +254 714 960 627
>> Skype: ultimateprogramer
>>
>> swahilibox.co.ke
>> www.okfn.org <http://okfn.org/>
>> startupgrind.com
>> ajplus.net
>> www.everylayer.com
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>>
>>
>> Regards,
>> Nanjira.
>>
>> www.nanjira.com
>>
>> About.Me <http://about.me/ninanjira>| Twitter
>> <http://www.twitter.com/ninanjira>| LinkedIn
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>>
>> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform
>> for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
>> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
>> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
>>
>> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
>> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
>> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
>> not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Jude Mwenda
>
> _______________________________________________
> kictanet mailing list
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>
> Unsubscribe or change your options at
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>
> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform
> for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
>
> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
> not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> kictanet mailing list
> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
> https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
>
> Unsubscribe or change your options at
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>
> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform
> for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
>
> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
> not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
>

-- 
*Ahmed Maawy*
Executive Director - SwahiliBox / M-Power (CBO)
Ambassador - Open Knowledge
Director - Startup Grind Mombasa
Software Developer - AJ+ / EveryLayer
(KE) +254 714 960 627
Skype: ultimateprogramer

swahilibox.co.ke
www.okfn.org <http://okfn.org/>
startupgrind.com
ajplus.net
www.everylayer.com
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