2022.Jan.14

REPORTS

Report on the 6th B’AI Book Club
Safiya Umoja Noble, Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism (2018)

On November 30th, 2021, B’AI Book Club, a book review session by the members of the B’AI Global Forum, held its 6th meeting online. In the meeting, Hiroki Kato, a research assistant of the B’AI Global Forum, introduced Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism (New York University Press, 2018) by Safiya Umoja Noble.

 

When running a Google search for “black girls,” the top page used to give biased and sexist results. In Algorithms of Oppression, the author, who has worked for Google, looks into such misrepresentations of women of color on search engines, especially Google, and exposes both the commercial incentives and algorithmic mathematics that cause online environments to be racist and sexist. This book sheds light on the problems of seemingly “equal” and “neutral” online platforms, and asserts the necessity of public and institutional regulations on giant IT companies.

 

The meeting first discussed the huge impact that this book has on society. Although, in the book, the author refers to too many examples of problematic search results on Google, the current search results for “black girls” include fewer examples of racist or sexist sites or images. Such improvements of online environments can be attributed to the impact of the book to some extent. Of course, search results are not perfectly equal or neutral yet, and the platform is still biased in some regions when searching for other social categories. If we run a Google search for “Asian girls” for example, the top page includes many sexist images. While we still have such problems to tackle, it is also true that the situation is improving step by step. Therefore, this book can be considered as an empowering book for those who aspire to correct the disparity which is driven by technology.

 

As an academic book, however, Algorithms of Oppression can be evaluated as unsatisfactory. One participant in the meeting indicated that this book only focuses on technology and its providers, and therefore the scope is too narrow. If the author had paid attention to not only the representations on search engines but also the cognitive processes of the users for instance, this book could have presented a more comprehensive model by revealing the mechanisms through which technology and society interactively reproduce systematic discrimination.

 

Though this book can be evaluated differently depending on what perspective the reader takes, it is definitely an important book for researchers who aim to connect their studies with the solution of actual social issues.