Facebook will investigate discrimination in algorithms with its own teams

Facebook will set up its own research teams that will study the algorithms of the social network. The researchers will examine whether the algorithms discriminate against minorities, both at Facebook itself and at subsidiary Instagram.

These are different groups that will conduct research within the company, writes The Wall Street Journal. The group already exists within Instagram, but a group is also being set up within Facebook itself. The “equality team,” as it is called internally, must ensure that “equality and fairness are applied in all products that Facebook develops,” the company tells The Verge. The team will work closely with a similar team within Facebook: Responsible AI.

The team will study the effects of the algorithms used within Facebook and Instagram on minorities, such as black people and Latinos. The team itself consists of minorities and experts. There are several problems with Facebook’s artificial intelligence. For example, profiles of black users would be closed faster than those of others. The research team not only looks at the results of the algorithms, but also at the input that the algorithms have received.

Facebook would respond with the internal team to, among other things, the recent ad boycott of large companies. There are now dozens of companies that have joined the boycott, although the effect on Facebook’s revenue is not too bad for the time being. Facebook has also been under fire for some time for its position in the public debate. For example, Mark Zuckerberg has said more than once that Facebook politicians are not fact-checking and that it does not want to be ‘the arbiter of the truth’.