Related papers: Auditing Recommender Systems -- Putting the DSA in…
A central requirement of the European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA) is that online platforms undergo internal and external audits. A key component of these audits is the assessment of systemic risks, including the dissemination of…
Algorithms of online platforms are required under the Digital Services Act (DSA) to comply with specific obligations concerning algorithmic transparency, user protection and privacy. To verify compliance with these requirements, DSA…
Social media platforms curate access to information and opportunities, and so play a critical role in shaping public discourse today. The opaque nature of the algorithms these platforms use to curate content raises societal questions. Prior…
Societal risk emanating from how recommender algorithms disseminate content online is now well documented. Emergent regulation aims to mitigate this risk through ethical audits and enabling new research on the social impact of algorithms.…
Recommender systems are used to provide relevant suggestions on various matters. Although these systems are a classical research topic, knowledge is still limited regarding the public opinion about these systems. Public opinion is also…
The European Union introduced the Digital Services Act (DSA) to address the risks associated with digital platforms and promote a safer online environment. However, despite the potential of components such as the Transparency Database,…
By filtering the content that users see, social media platforms have the ability to influence users' perceptions and decisions, from their dining choices to their voting preferences. This influence has drawn scrutiny, with many calling for…
Data generated by audits of social media websites have formed the basis of our understanding of the biases presented in algorithmic content recommendation systems. As legislators around the world are beginning to consider regulating the…
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly embedded in digital, social, and institutional infrastructures, and AI and platforms are merged into hybrid structures, systemic risk has emerged as a critical but undertheorized…
For almost a decade now, scholarship in and beyond the ACM FAccT community has been focusing on novel and innovative ways and methodologies to audit the functioning of algorithmic systems. Over the years, this research idea and technical…
As recommender systems become widely deployed in different domains, they increasingly influence their users' beliefs and preferences. Auditing recommender systems is crucial as it not only ensures the continuous improvement of…
AI audits are an increasingly popular mechanism for algorithmic accountability; however, they remain poorly defined. Without a clear understanding of audit practices, let alone widely used standards or regulatory guidance, claims that an AI…
The Digital Services Act (DSA) introduces harmonized rules for content moderation and platform governance in the European Union, mandating robust compliance mechanisms, particularly for very large online platforms and search engines. This…
The European legislature has proposed the Digital Services Act (DSA) and Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA) to regulate platforms and Artificial Intelligence (AI) products. We review to what extent third-party audits are part of both laws…
Social media platforms (SMPs) leverage algorithmic filtering (AF) as a means of selecting the content that constitutes a user's feed with the aim of maximizing their rewards. Selectively choosing the contents to be shown on the user's feed…
The European Commission recently introduced new regulation to harmonize transparency reporting of large online platforms under the Digital Services Act (DSA). Here, we present the first systematic evaluation of transparency reporting data…
Digital platforms such as social media and e-commerce websites adopt Recommender Systems to provide value to the user. However, the social consequences deriving from their adoption are still unclear. Many scholars argue that recommenders…
Algorithms are becoming more widely used in business, and businesses are becoming increasingly concerned that their algorithms will cause significant reputational or financial damage. We should emphasize that any of these damages stem from…
How can society understand and hold accountable complex human and algorithmic decision-making systems whose systematic errors are opaque to the public? These systems routinely make decisions on individual rights and well-being, and on…
Digital ads on social-media platforms play an important role in shaping access to economic opportunities. Our work proposes and implements a new third-party auditing method that can evaluate racial bias in the delivery of ads for education…