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Dr. Robert Epstein: How Big Tech’s Algorithms Can Impact Opinions and Votes—and the 2020 Election


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Sept. 9 2019

Just what are some of the methods that tech giants like Google and Facebook can use to shift their users’ attitudes, beliefs, and even votes?

How do search engine rankings impact undecided voters?

How powerful of an impact can search engine algorithms have on our perceptions and actions, without us even knowing?

And why aren’t more people researching these things?

This is American Thought Leaders 🇺🇸, and I’m Jan Jekielek.

Today we sit down with Dr. Robert Epstein, the former editor-in-chief of Psychology Today. He is currently a senior research psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology and a leading expert on search engine bias.

We explore his meticulous research into tech giant bias, and the startling discoveries he has made. We also look at Dr. Epstein’s ambitious plans to monitor and track search engine bias in the months leading up to the 2020 election.

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Is Twitter Really Censoring Free Speech?

Kalev Leetaru

AI & Big Data

I write about the broad intersection of data and society.

The past month has seen a flurry of high profile announcements chronicling just how all-powerful social media companies have become in their control over what we see online. From Twitter’s nonchalant reminder of its ability to ban world leaders and their posts, to Facebook’s actual deletion of a head of state, Silicon Valley has been on the move to remind the world that it and it alone decides what we are permitted to see in its walled gardens that define our modern web. As we take stock of a new year, what does 2017 teach us about what to expect in the coming year?

The power of social media companies to determine what crosses their digital borders has been in the headlines this week with two major stories: Facebook’s redesigned News Feed that deemphasizes commercial and news content in favor of friends and family and a set of undercover videos by Project Veritas that claim to show several Twitter employees openly discussing how the platform limits or deletes posts or entire user accounts.

Project Veritas is known for selectively editing its videos and the manner in which the most recent videos were filmed and edited makes it difficult to fully assess their contents and the veracity of the claims they appear to make. The broader question, however, is why such films received the attention they did in 2018. The short answer is that they address a topic that the social media platforms themselves have been immensely reluctant to discuss publicly: how they make the myriad decisions each day of who and what to delete or restrict on their platforms.

When asked for comment on several specific claims made in the videos, a Twitter spokesperson issued a statement saying “The individuals depicted in this video were speaking in a personal capacity and do not represent or speak for Twitter” and that “Twitter is committed to enforcing our rules without bias and empowering every voice on our platform, in accordance with the Twitter Rules.”  However, when asked about the specific claims made in the video regarding content moderation, Twitter would provide comment only regarding “shadowbanning,” saying “Twitter does not shadowban accounts. We do take actions to downrank accounts that are abusive, and mark them accordingly so people can still to click through and see these Tweets if they so choose” and referred to its Help Center regarding “Limiting Tweet visibility."

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