When Algorithms Decide Whose Voices Will Be Heard

Our day-to-day lives and consumption of all things digital are increasingly being analyzed and dictated by algorithms: from what we see — or don’t see — in our news and social media feeds, to the products we buy, to the music we listen to. What gets presented when we type a query into a search engine, and how the results are ranked, are determined by the search engines based on what is deemed to be “useful” and “relevant.” Serendipity has been replaced by curated content, with all of us enveloped inside our own personalized bubbles. But what happens when algorithms operating in a black box start to impact more than just mundane activities or hobbies?  What if they decide whose voice gets to be heard? What if instead of a public square where free speech flourishes, the internet becomes a guarded space where only a select group of individuals get heard — and our society in turn gets shaped by those voices? We must think long and hard about these questions, and develop checks and balances to ensure our fate is not determined by an algorithm working in a black box.