Exposing The Demagoguery Of Bias & Discrimination

Posted: 4/6/2019

Just received a newsletter from MIT Technology Review in my inbox. The newsletter is titled “The Algorithm from MIT Tech Review ”.

It reads (emphasis added):

1. “Facebook’s algorithm is perpetuating discrimination. As we’ve discussed before, all algorithms are biased—and Facebook’s is no exception.”
2. “But new evidence shows that Facebook’s algorithm, which automatically decides who is shown an ad, carries out the same discrimination anyway. A team led by Muhammad Ali and Piotr Sapiezynski at Northeastern University ran a series of otherwise identical ads with slight variations in available budget, headline, text, or image. They found that those subtle tweaks had significant impacts on the audience reached by each ad—most notably when the ads were for jobs or real estate. Postings for preschool teachers and secretaries, for example, were shown to a higher fraction of women, while postings for janitors and taxi drivers were shown to a higher proportion of minorities. Ads for buying homes were also shown to more white users, while ads for rentals were shown to more minorities.”
3. 

What Is Wrong Here?

One study is no evidence! Not all algorithms are biased (this claim above is just absurd!)!

Ads are always targeted to selected groups! Why would a business waste money presenting ads to potential customers with low probability of making a purchase etc.

Bias and Discrimination as described here in this MIT Technology Review article are largely in the eye of the beholder

What is the point of publishing such an obviously incendiary and unscientific articles? Is it to enforce and impose totalitarian equality on the whole society at any cost? It seems so!

We are dealing here most likely with a new dogmatic, fanatic religion!

Many other examples could be presented here how politically overloaded terms like “bias”, “discrimination”, or “inclusive” are being abused as divisive weapons in our daily discourse even by (formerly) reputable institutions like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology!

It is absolutely appalling!