The Algorithmic State of Mind

This book conceptualises different ‘news recommendation’ practices from a legal perspective and establishes ways forward for dealing with them.

In recent years, online news distributors (online news media, social media, search engines and news aggregators) started deploying algorithmic ‘recommender systems’ to curate users’ news overviews. Such systems automatically (de)select and (de)prioritise items to be displayed in user interfaces, thus deciding which ones are visible and in what order.

The ways algorithms shape people’s online informational environments has since a decade led to debate. According to some, these technologies threaten democracy, as they may create filter bubbles or push divisive, polarising and extremist content, while others see advantages in recommendation tools that could bring various matters to light or help navigate a potential online information overload. 

Discussions about how algorithms affect online flows of information are particularly pertinent where news recommenders are concerned; news informs us on matters of public interest and helps us form and debate opinions. An enabler and facilitator for democracy, news fulfils a unique societal function.

With a view to facilitating regulatory and policy discussions about news recommendation practices, this book asks what risks and/or opportunities they create in terms of human rights, a question which has remained largely unanswered so far. In the case of risks, the use of these systems may require regulation, and in the case of opportunities, they could potentially be used as a tool to achieve public policy goals. Against that backdrop, this book establishes a human rights frame for governing news recommendation.

This book is intended both for scholars and students from legal or other backgrounds, and regulators and policy makers working on new (AI-driven) digital technologies, human rights in the digital age, or human rights generally. 

Judith Vermeulen is a lawyer with Eubelius in Brussels, Belgium, and a practice assistant in the Law & Technology department of Faculty of Law & Criminology at Ghent University.