Washington Post video editor Gillian Brockwell sent out a plea to Facebook, Google, Twitter, Instagram, and Experian, begging them to improve their algorithms. In the tweet, she explains that when she was pregnant, she shared her joy on social media. She used Instagram hashtags like #babybump, wrote baby shower thank you notes on Facebook, and Googled “babysafe crib paint” and maternity clothes. She was served up ads that matched her new interests.
But then she started Googling other things like “baby not moving” and posting on Facebook about being heartbroken that her child was stillborn. Her friends weighed in with tear drop emojis. The algorithms that populate the internet were clever enough to figure out she was pregnant, but not clever enough to figure out when she was not. They kept serving her ads that compounded her heartache, Brockwell writes. When she clicked “I don’t want to see this ad” to give herself some respite, she says the algorithm decided she had given birth—and so it gave her new, more painful ads. That led her to Twitter to plead with the companies to do better.
Brockwell writes: “If you’re smart enough to realized that I’m pregnant, that I’ve given birth, then surely you’re smart enough to realize that my baby died and can advertise accordingly, or maybe just maybe, not at all.”
An open letter to @Facebook, @Twitter, @Instagram and @Experian regarding algorithms and my son's birth: pic.twitter.com/o8SuLMuLNv
— Gillian Brockell (@gbrockell) December 11, 2018
We’ve reached out to Facebook, Instagram, and Google for comment and will update this post if we hear back.
Facebook has attempted to filter out some of the more painful memories from its “On This Day” feature—which resurfaces images and posts from your Facebook past. But how its algorithm decides what to show is a complete mystery. In the past, it has chosen to highlight dead pets, a burning apartment, a father’s ashes, and other jarringly sad images. (Web developer Eric Meyer’s post, Inadvertent Algorithmic Cruelty, sums it up well.) While Facebook users can filter out specific dates, people, and memorialized accounts from their memories, users are still very much at the mercy of algorithms, especially when it comes to ads—no matter how heartless and indifferent they may be.
from Fast Company http://bit.ly/2LgsUcr
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