Thursday, November 18, 2021

Consequences

Ofcom is pursuing the idea that big online aggregators like Facebook and Google are not sufficiently transparent about their algorithms, and the way they select news stories to push at their users. 

This fits in with the world view of Mail Online and The Telegraph that Facebook and Google 'prefer' versions of similar stories by BBC News and The Guardian, for example. 

This is tricky stuff, especially if Ofcom don't like what they find. Imagine if, before the Internet, newspapers went to an industry regulator, and demanded that every newsagent across the UK laid out the day's papers in the same agreed way. Imagine if Mail Online was forced to be transparent about the algorithms and SEO-optimisation that moves stories about celebrities in bikinis around its pages. Imagine how little content there would be on most UK Newspaper sites if they weren't allowed to 'lift' stories from rivals unless they'd checked the story for themselves. 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Other people who read this.......