We have no idea what content is most viral on YouTube, Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, or X – because they refuse to share basic data.
On the DSA’s Birthday (Oct 4th) we’ve led a “mass data access request” along with @mozilla and DSA40 Data Access Collaboratory, where a series of ~20 orgs requested daily data on their top 1,000 most-viewed posts in EU Member States. Every single one refused.
Join us in demanding platform transparency.
Posted on mastodon: https://chaos.social/@algorithmwatch/115620980818833875
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
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On the one hand them refusing to share this data is very problematic, on the other hand what the most viewed posts are is determined by their algorithm, and so a distortion of what is “popular”. Sharing and giving users control over those algorithms is the more important issue that should be receiving focus.
I want to predict that they end up to acquiescing to the demand for “most viewed” data so they can pretend to be all responsible. Seems like a distraction.
I mean, they’re not going to let you take a look at the algorithms of the timelines.
Knowing what are the top posts allows us at least to know what those algorithm are pushing. It’s not much, but it’s the bare minimum of accountability.
My guess is they don’t want data scientist types to find trends pointing to the possible “moderation” of viral posts of a certain political potency, not to make them more popular, but to suppress or wholly censor something impactful from being spread further. Censorship. I mean censorship.
It just wouldn’t surprise me if posts that started being shared at an explosive rate for insert highly-affecting thing here were quietly “turned off” for many an audience’s algorithm at some point by meddlesome human hands. The public having this data could reveal that or other types of manipulation when compared to other platforms, in aggregate, etc.
But idk, not a data doctor