To investigate the influence of Facebook and Instagram's algorithms on user newsfeeds, Guardian Australia deployed blank smartphones with virgin email addresses. Over three months, these phones were left untouched, yet they displayed increasingly inappropriate content targeting young men.
Three profiles, modeled as 24-year-old males, lacked personal data which Facebook could not collect due to opting out of ad tracking. Instagram required the addition of five accounts for feed generation, including popular figures like Australia's Prime Minister and fitness influencer Bec Judd.
The initial content on these devices primarily comprised humorous posts about TV shows and news articles from 7 News and Daily Mail. However, over time, their feeds gradually filled with various meme images ranging from sitcom-related to more misogynistic and sexist material.
After three months, the phones' content was predominantly filled with memes related to popular shows like The Office, Star Wars, and Boys, interspersed with increasingly inappropriate imagery without any user input.
The study echoes previous findings from YouTube and TikTok experiments on young men, suggesting the algorithms serve up such content based on assumptions about their interests. This raises concerns over the lack of transparency and accountability surrounding these platforms' decision-making processes.
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