An Imperative to Assess Socio-Technical Impact of Algorithms in Online Spaces and Wresting Responsibility from Technology Companies

Today’s information ecosystem has a plethora of tools to support decision-making and cognitive offloading. As this ecosystem has evolved and grown, however, we increasingly rely on recommendation systems, algorithmic curation, and other technologies to make decisions on our behalf and help manage an otherwise-overwhelming information environment. This cognitive offloading comes at a price, as these technologies make decisions that govern the information sources to which we are exposed, the celebrities we are likely follow, the content likely to become popular, the order of information shown to us, and even the state of our emotions. Despite the potential effects of this tradeoff, the true socio-technical impact of this reliance and imbuing these technologies with so much influence over the information space remains both an open and a controversial question. This paper outlines different forms of this question, wherein I summarize the controversies surrounding these technologies and the mixed evidence from academic research on them. I then describe the barriers impeding resolution of these concerns and how the current trajectories of online social platforms and the technology companies that own them are unlikely to provide answers to these issues without external intervention. I close by describing a "socio-technical safety triad" for online social spaces, where the responsibilities and incentives for reducing societal harm are devolved from corporations and spread across academic, governmental, and corporate stakeholders.