Experts Warn That Algorithms Designed to Increase Engagement May Also Reinforce Bias and Limit Exposure to Opposing Viewpoints
An echo chamber is a media term that can be defined as an ecosystem in which individuals encounter beliefs and information that reinforce and magnify preexisting beliefs. In the context of media and social media, internet search engines such as YouTube, Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok have built in mechanisms that are designed to look for patterns and themes that point to specific interests. These mechanisms are called algorithms.
Your Algorithm Is Fooling You
The concept of the algorithm is not anything new. But in this new age of information curation and artificial intelligence leading the discourse, it presents a new scope of inquiry that prompts immediate dissection. Writer Emily Tsiao, in her 2026 online article for PluggedIn.com:
“Your Algorithm Is Fooling You”, writes, “Simply put, social media algorithms are curated feeds. Machine learning allows these powerful programs to analyze someone’s social media use and—often with astonishing accuracy—predict what sort of content that someone might also enjoy. It’s a way for social media companies to increase user engagement..Essentially, algorithmic recommendations typically only show you one viewpoint—the one that your previous choices have demonstrated you will most likely agree and engage with.”
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When one is looking up information such as videos or news feeds, they are looking for specific topics that pertain to their interests. Naturally, the algorithm is clocking these videos and feeds and notating this as an interest and will continue to share information in the realm of information to the user. However, the question now becomes who are the governing bodies behind these algorithmic models? Who are the governing bodies behind these news and general internet search engines and who is deciding what information and feeds continue to be replicated?
Intentional Gatekeeping
This begs the question of how the very nature of information is being impacted? In the past, media outlets often went through a unique selection process of who will be spotlighted and for how long. Gatekeeping is the intentional selection and filtering of information within a certain media space and time frame. Again, gatekeeping is nothing new. But in the age of this new arena of information curation, it’s becoming more and more nuanced and policed.
Pushing One Specific Agenda?
What does this mean for the future? In this attention economy, where views, shares, likes, and follows have become the new currency, what systems, if any have been put in place to ensure media outlets and political groups are not abusing access to algorithms in order to push one specific agenda?
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