"Do social media algorithms erode our ability to make decisions freely? The jury is out"

Allow me to toot my own horn for a second. Just published online is a little piece in The Conversation that Lewis Mitchell and I wrote about a 2019 paper of ours:

Our results mean that even if you #DeleteFacebook (which trended after the Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018), you may still be able to be profiled, due to the social ties that remain. And that’s before we consider the things about Facebook that make it so difficult to delete anyway.

We also found it’s possible to build profiles of non-users — so-called “shadow profiles” — based on their contacts who are on the platform. Even if you have never used Facebook, if your friends do, there is the possibility a shadow profile could be built of you.

On social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, privacy is no longer tied to the individual, but to the network as a whole.

Do social media algorithms erode our ability to make decisions freely? The jury is out.

If you’re interested in learning more, here’s the paper itself.