{"id":2759,"date":"2017-08-30T08:34:47","date_gmt":"2017-08-29T22:34:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.qut.edu.au\/crime-and-justice-research-centre\/?p=2759"},"modified":"2017-08-30T08:34:47","modified_gmt":"2017-08-29T22:34:47","slug":"algorithmic-transparency-in-online-censorship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.qut.edu.au\/crime-and-justice-research-centre\/2017\/08\/30\/algorithmic-transparency-in-online-censorship\/","title":{"rendered":"Algorithmic transparency in online censorship"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Crime and Justice Research Centre Member Dr Monique Mann, along with QUT Law Professor Matthew Rimmer, spoke to Renegade Inc about the issue of algorithmic transparency in online censorship and the regulation of automated decision-making by technology giants.<\/p>\n

Renegade Inc. is an independent knowledge platform for people who think differently. They find thinkers, writers, leaders and creators in search of the best new ideas, businesses and policies. Many more people are now questioning the conventional wisdom of modern life and asking a simple question: How do I live well during the age of uncertainty? Renegade Inc. was founded to answer some of those questions.<\/p>\n

——————————————————————————————————————–Dr Monique Mann, researcher at Queensland University of Technology\u2019s Crime and Justice Research Centre, and Director of Australian Privacy Foundation told Renegade Inc that these issues of censorship relate to broader issues around bias in computer systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese decisions aren\u2019t being made by formal enforcement bodies, or any kind of body with authorised legal powers,\u201d she said. \u201cThis process is occurring by transnational companies and platforms, these tech giants are acting like big regulators.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Mann says these instances of censorship by algorithm raises questions over trade secrets and proprietary rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese trade secrets and algorithms are how they operate,\u201d she said. \u201cBut they introduce additional challenges and barriers to transparency and accountability of algorithms, themselves protected under international property law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hypothetically Google is applying a colour-blind algorithm. Dr Mann says the question is over what happens when algorithms are built by \u201cdigital duopolies\u201d to match societal expectations.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoogle is deciding what is an acceptable story, and what is unacceptable, whose views and voices are preferenced, and whose are silenced,\u201d she said. \u201cThere is no transparency and accountability. These companies are protected by very serious financial investments and fields of law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Monique Mann told Renegade Inc that there has been a suggestion that some tweets made by President Trump violate Twitter\u2019s terms of service, because they contain hate-speech that targets certain groups and minority populations: particularly Muslims and the LGBTQI community given his recent attempt to enact a Muslim ban and deny health care to LGBTQI servicemen, women and those who identify as neither, or have them thrown out of the service altogether.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut are Twitter likely to block Trump for violating its terms of service?,\u201d she asked. \u201cThese are all very loaded and difficult decisions around what constitutes hate speech vs political expression. These are very contested issues and I do not think there are any easy answers here.\u201d<\/p>\n

A battle for the heart and soul of the web<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr Matthew Rimmer, Professor of IP and Innovation Law and Queensland University of Technology told Renegade Inc that how these companies manage information is becoming increasingly important.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir duties and responsibilities are becoming quite significant,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is a battle for the heart and soul of the internet in many ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTim Berners Lee, (computer scientist and inventor of the World Wide Web), commented recently that the open system he helped create has come under threat from various corporate players who have enacted site blocking and surveillance. He said it is important to address the balance away from big IT companies and other corporations and national governments. He wants to recover the emancipatory potential of the internet and World Wide Web. There are some larger questions involved in terms of the future evolution of the regime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Mann said that automation through algorithm is \u2018falling into a trap\u2019 that is not going to find us any easy answers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese processes and the way they operate create a range of additional problems,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t think technology in this situation is going to be the panacea for social issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

To read the full article, click here:\u00a0https:\/\/renegadeinc.com\/truth-will-not-be-googled<\/a>\/<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crime and Justice Research Centre Member Dr Monique Mann, along with QUT Law Professor Matthew Rimmer, spoke to Renegade Inc about the issue of algorithmic transparency in online censorship and the regulation of automated decision-making by technology giants. Renegade Inc. is an independent knowledge platform for people who think differently. They find thinkers, writers, leaders<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4341,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2759","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qut.edu.au\/crime-and-justice-research-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qut.edu.au\/crime-and-justice-research-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qut.edu.au\/crime-and-justice-research-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qut.edu.au\/crime-and-justice-research-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4341"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qut.edu.au\/crime-and-justice-research-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2759"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qut.edu.au\/crime-and-justice-research-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2760,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qut.edu.au\/crime-and-justice-research-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2759\/revisions\/2760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qut.edu.au\/crime-and-justice-research-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qut.edu.au\/crime-and-justice-research-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qut.edu.au\/crime-and-justice-research-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}