Now Is Big Tech’s Time to Explain Itself

Algorithmic transparency will help us understand how our data influences the information we consume

After Facebook and Twitter banned Former U.S. President Donald Trump from their services and Apple and Google decided to remove controversial social network Parler from their application marketplaces earlier this month, a bright light shone on the critical position big tech plays in our lives.

For years, massive technology companies have been providing the platforms on which we communicate. They’ve quietly taken our data, analyzed it, and developed algorithms to show us what we want, based on our tastes. Along the way, they’ve limited access to our data and monetized it in innumerable ways.

But times have changed. Initiatives around the globe, including GDPR, provide users with an opportunity to safeguard their privacy better than ever. They’ve also held tech companies accountable for the user data they house.

Still, those efforts haven’t gone far enough. Tech companies have partially changed their ways because of government oversight. But in light of their recent actions, it’s time they themselves take steps to improve transparency and give users power over manipulating forces that dictate what they see and when.

Indeed, much of the information users see each day flows from social profiles armed with News Feeds. Those News Feeds are powered by sophisticated algorithms that analyze a person, their interests, and their behaviors, and feed them with the content the algorithm has decided they should see.

It’s not difficult to see how concerning such technology can be in a world where misinformation and disinformation spread so easily. Users need opportunities to foster their resilience to misinformation. Having no ability to understand their behavioral profiles and how their data is being interpreted leaves them questioning intentions — and potentially succumbing to harmful misinformation.

Users must be given better insight into why specific content has been recommended to them and how they are moving between echo chambers. More importantly, people deserve the right and technology to influence what they see and where they go. It’s an important step towards retaking their online freedom.

After finally acknowledging their responsibility in the recent events in the U.S., big tech companies must also take responsibility for housing user data and not making transparency and users’ freedom central to their operations.

The time has come for that to change. Now more than ever, we as an Internet community have a right to our data and the information we consume. Big tech companies must acknowledge that and meet this moment in history by helping us reclaim our digital freedom.