Well, I thought that I’d ramble about politics and internet algorithms. This was something I ended up thinking about during the summer, after I found myself watching a lot of left-wing Youtube channels from the US. For a while, I wondered if this was the dreaded “algorithmic rabbit hole”? Like a friendlier reverse version of those terrifying horror stories of internet recommendation algorithms shoving people towards the far-right.
But, whilst the dystopian and depressing politics over the pond in the US since late January did play a role in shoving my usual complicated mixture of political opinions more towards the left than usual, it was actually British politics that are mostly responsible for my – possibly temporary, possibly permanent – move towards the left this year.
I’ll spare you the lengthy political rant I’d originally planned to include in this article, but it was partially because of the shocking increase in open and/or official transphobia – sometimes including outright discrimination – since the Supreme Court’s unjust ruling in April and partially because of the scary increase in right-wing nationalism this year (eg: all of the flags hanging from lamp-posts this year, that creepy right-wing protest in London during the summer etc...). And, in response to all of this, what person who has read a history book or seen a history documentary wouldn’t immediately and reflexively move towards the left?
The point is that it was actual real-life politics, rather than Youtube recommending a few videos, which moved my political opinions more towards the left this year.
A lot of the discourse surrounding politics and the internet often overlooks a multitude of factors that can shape or change a person’s political opinions. People aren’t always robots who, when an algorithm suddenly starts showing them more conservative or left-wing stuff, mindless follow and obey it without question.
No, a giant constellation of factors can sometimes influence a person’s political opinions in any given moment. Two people might watch the same political video given to them by an algorithm and, due to any number of personal factors or circumstances, one might watch with utter fascination and the other might just roll their eyes and move on to another video.
And, yes, there’s probably a lot to be said about political polarisation. About how people should have the sort of “complicated mixture of political opinions” that I used to have. But all sorts of circumstances and other things can shape a person’s politics. And most of those things have nothing to do with online algorithms.
Yes, recommendation algorithms probably should be regulated to an extent, in order to give users greater control over what is being recommended. But I also find the idea that algorithms alone can totally alter a person’s political opinions to be utterly ridiculous. Yes, it might tip people further into a direction that they were already going or have a subtle influence. But I’d like to at least think that most people are smarter than that, despite all of the depressing evidence to the contrary in both US and British politics this year.
Maybe I’m wrong? Maybe there are people out there who are that gullible and will obey an algorithm without thought or question? Again, most of Britain and America’s problems this year seem to be caused by people mindlessly obeying right-wing populists and/or – like the people in the theatre in Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four” – mindlessly hating whichever scapegoats the right-wing press offer up to them.
But a person’s political opinions are shaped by so much more than just internet algorithms. To blame it all on algorithms is to reduce people to being nothing more than mindless robots. Something which, ironically, is a VERY conservative and authoritarian way of looking at humanity…
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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting 🙂
