Facebook’s algorithms increasingly under scrutiny of lawmakers in US

U.S. lawmakers investigating how Facebook Inc. and other online platforms shape users’ worldviews are considering new rules for the artificial intelligence programs blamed for spreading malicious content.

This legislative push is taking on more urgency since a whistleblower revealed thousands of pages of internal documents revealing how Facebook employees knew the company’s algorithms prioritizing growth and engagement were driving people to more divisive and harmful content.

Every automated action on the internet is controlled by computer code written by engineers. Some of these algorithms take simple inputs — words or video quality — to show certain outputs, while others use artificial intelligence to learn more about people and user-generated content, resulting in more sophisticated sorting.

Both Republicans and Democrats agree there should be some accountability for tech companies, although Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act provides broad legal immunity for online platforms.

While there has been some consensus on updated privacy rules and techfocused antitrust bills, two recesses next month and fiscal deadlines looming in December mean there is little time for concrete action this year.

After wrestling with how to write laws to allow or prohibit certain speech, which risks running afoul of the First Amendment, regulating automated algorithms is emerging as a possible strategy.

“The algorithms driving powerful social media platforms are black boxes, making it difficult for the public and policymakers to conduct oversight and ensure … compliance, even with their own policies,” Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., told Bloomberg. He introduced a bill in May he said would “help pull back the curtain on Big Tech, enact strict prohibitions on harmful algorithms, and prioritize justice for communities who have long been discriminated against as we work toward platform accountability.”

Frances Haugen, the Facebook whistleblower, said the best way to regulate online platforms such as Facebook is to focus on systemic solutions, especially transparency and accountability, for the machine-learning architecture that powers some of the world’s biggest and most influential companies.