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

Sat May 14 09:05:57 EAT 2016

Ahmed

Great explanation. To put it into perspective answer this for me:-

Do you think Facebook is culpable in trying to influence people with the
way they use Data Science, Algorithms, machine learning or other tools?

Ali Hussein
Tel: +254 713 601113
On May 14, 2016 7:57 AM, "Ahmed Mohamed Maawy" <ultimateprogramer at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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
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>>> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
>>> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and
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>>> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
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>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> *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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>>> End of kictanet Digest, Vol 108, Issue 21
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>>>
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Nanjira.
>>>
>>> www.nanjira.com
>>>
>>> About.Me <http://about.me/ninanjira>| Twitter
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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
>> kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke
>> https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet
>>
>> Unsubscribe or change your options at
>> https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/info%40alyhussein.com
>>
>> 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
>> https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/ultimateprogramer%40gmail.com
>>
>> 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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