Challenging Algorithms Of Oppression: What Do These Algorithms Do?

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CHALLENGING ALGORITHMS OF OPPRESSION
* What do these algorithms do?
These algorithms suggest to bring up results that redirect the user to websites that are created and managed by racists, extreme leftists, and right-wingers. The algorithms also redirect users to commercial sites that are sexist. In one example, she notes that a google search result for ‘black girls’ populated the results page with links to pornographic websites such as ‘sugaryblackpussy.com.’ Noble notes that the algorithms seem to bring up pornographic sites when the user looked for women and girls of color.
* How do they reinforce social attitudes?
These algorithms continue to engrain social attitudes held by some people, and they continue to use the internet to spread their dogma. Vulnerable and unsuspecting people continue to be lured to visit these websites that are populated on the search engines’ first page when they have indeed looked up for different content. The algorithms continue to reinforce the societal attitude held by the conservatives, racists, sexists, fascists and other people who hold polarizing opinions about a particular ethnic community because they pay to be ranked higher in the search engine results. Eventually, nearly all unsuspecting users end up consuming information that they never intended to come across, and they may be indoctrinated by these websites.
* Why might this be damaging?
This might be damaging because more people continue to adopt polarizing ideologies against a particular group of people or an ethnic community. The indoctrination eventually leads to a more polarized and divided society, and it may turn chaotic. Noble gives an example of a young man who was ‘awakened’ about his racial identity. She notes that the information the young man got was from a racist website run by a racist organization which the young man came across when he was researching on ...