final blog | Thank you!
I have learned a lot from this class. I did not know what to expect going in, and I was a little annoyed that we were only going to make a prototype instead of turning our researches into actual projects. The flexibility of professor Sakr helped me expanding my vision from just making an educational channel to present my research in a simpler form, but to create a whole educational channel in Arabic based on research and inspired by crashcourse (the youtube channel.) https://www.youtube.com/user/crashcourse
How Google's search algorithm spreads false information with a rightwing bias
The first thing I did when I started reading this article is googling what the experiment was about. When typing “climate change is…” different results are showing up now. I am assuming that things have changed since this was printed and maybe this article was a part of the change. I am trying to see what comes up when I look up Biden vs Bernie. Google suggests that Biden’s winning results while when it comes to Bernie, the first results are not about the states Bernie is winning. The first google suggestion is “Bernie is done” and “Biden is winning.” It is interesting to see how a search engine, that I never think of its effect, can be so influential. I would like to see these effects in different parts of the world, like Egypt. In a neoliberal world where governments are being fronts for giant corporations like Google, it is interesting to see how much power this corporation holds and what the future holds for us. After reading the article about google and rightwing manipulation of information and how google tweaks the search engine and claims to neutral, I remembered paragraphs of the Zapatistas Sixth Declaration that I did recently. This reading kinda made see a world in the future that is ruled by transnational corporations beyond governmental powers that are limited by borders and elections. Maybe the world will be ruled by consolidated corporations like Google, Walmart, and Facebook. Recently, during the coronavirus chaos, a press conference was held by these giant corporations to lead the way out of the crisis. With all these signs, I see a world doomed and ruled by one gigantic corporation like the movie, The Hunger Games.
Facebook Trending: It’s made of people!! (but we should have already known that)
again, this seems a bit repetitive since it is very similar to how humans manipulate the google algorithm. There is a lot of manipulation done by all these giant corporations that don't change until uncovered, which is really scary. Also, I don’t get to see the “trending” topics on my Facebook page anymore, and I am not sure if that is the case with everyone. I just looked it up and it seems like it was removed in 2018. It is also interesting to see the role of journalism and governments in slowing down the ever-growing powers of giant corporations, and their lack of power to actually make a difference as well.
Algorithms, clickworkers, and the befuddled fury around Facebook Trends
This article again highlights the unprecedented power held by a giant corporation like Facebook and how algorithms are not neutral.