The responsibility of social media in times of societal and political manipulation
| Autor: | Ulrike Reisach |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
Artificial intelligence
Information Systems and Management General Computer Science media_common.quotation_subject ComputerApplications_COMPUTERSINOTHERSYSTEMS ComputingMilieux_LEGALASPECTSOFCOMPUTING Management Science and Operations Research Article Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Education Politics Political science Referendum Social media media_common Operationalization Human rights business.industry Polarization (politics) Public relations Brexit Ethics in OR Modeling and Simulation Disinformation Behavioral OR business Decision-making |
| Zdroj: | European Journal of Operational Research |
| ISSN: | 0377-2217 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.ejor.2020.09.020 |
| Popis: | Highlights • Social media's profiling can be used for advertising and political manipulation. • Widely disseminated disinformation endangers democratic decision-making. • Social media platforms show a lack of long-term societal focus on potential risks. • Societies should ensure that globally active social media companies act responsibly. • Responsibly governed social media could help emancipate societies. The way electorates were influenced to vote for the Brexit referendum, and in presidential elections both in Brazil and the USA, has accelerated a debate about whether and how machine learning techniques can influence citizens’ decisions. The access to balanced information is endangered if digital political manipulation can influence voters. The techniques of profiling and targeting on social media platforms can be used for advertising as well as for propaganda: Through tracking of a person's online behaviour, algorithms of social media platforms can create profiles of users. These can be used for the provision of recommendations or pieces of information to specific target groups. As a result, propaganda and disinformation can influence the opinions and (election) decisions of voters much more powerfully than previously. In order to counter disinformation and societal polarization, the paper proposes a responsibility-based approach for social media platforms in diverse political contexts. Based on the implementation requirements of the “Ethics Guidelines for Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence” of the European Commission, the ethical principles will be operationalized, as far as they are directly relevant for the safeguarding of democratic societies. The resulting suggestions show how the social media platform providers can minimize risks for societies through responsible action in the fields of human rights, education and transparency of algorithmic decisions. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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