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Incident 117: TikTok's "Suggested Accounts" Algorithm Allegedly Reinforced Racial Bias through Feedback Loops

Description: TikTok's "Suggested Accounts" recommendations allegedly reinforced racial bias despite not basing recommendations on race or creators' profile photo.

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Alleged: TikTok developed and deployed an AI system, which harmed TikTok users and TikTok content creators.

Incident Stats

Incident ID
117
Report Count
4
Incident Date
2020-02-24
Editors
Sean McGregor, Khoa Lam
Applied Taxonomies
GMF, MIT

MIT Taxonomy Classifications

Machine-Classified
Taxonomy Details

Risk Subdomain

A further 23 subdomains create an accessible and understandable classification of hazards and harms associated with AI
 

1.1. Unfair discrimination and misrepresentation

Risk Domain

The Domain Taxonomy of AI Risks classifies risks into seven AI risk domains: (1) Discrimination & toxicity, (2) Privacy & security, (3) Misinformation, (4) Malicious actors & misuse, (5) Human-computer interaction, (6) Socioeconomic & environmental harms, and (7) AI system safety, failures & limitations.
 
  1. Discrimination and Toxicity

Entity

Which, if any, entity is presented as the main cause of the risk
 

AI

Timing

The stage in the AI lifecycle at which the risk is presented as occurring
 

Post-deployment

Intent

Whether the risk is presented as occurring as an expected or unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
 

Unintentional

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

Incident Occurrence+1
There’s something strange about TikTok recommendations
+1
Is TikTok’s algorithm actually pretty racist?
There’s something strange about TikTok recommendations

There’s something strange about TikTok recommendations

vox.com

Tweet: @MarcFaddoul

Tweet: @MarcFaddoul

twitter.com

Is TikTok’s algorithm actually pretty racist?

Is TikTok’s algorithm actually pretty racist?

dailydot.com

TikTok's Algorithm Shows Unintentional Racial Bias, Researcher Finds

TikTok's Algorithm Shows Unintentional Racial Bias, Researcher Finds

buzzfeednews.com

There’s something strange about TikTok recommendations
vox.com · 2020

When artificial intelligence researcher Marc Faddoul joined TikTok a few days ago, he saw something concerning: When he followed a new account, the profiles recommended by TikTok seemed eerily, physically similar to the profile picture of t…

Tweet: @MarcFaddoul
twitter.com · 2020

A TikTok novelty: FACE-BASED FITLER BUBBLES

The AI-bias techlash seems to have had no impact on newer platforms. Follow a random profile, and TikTok will only recommend people who look almost the same.

Let’s do the experiment from a fresh a…

Is TikTok’s algorithm actually pretty racist?
dailydot.com · 2020

According to an experiment performed by artificial intelligence researcher Marc Faddoul, the algorithm TikTok uses to suggest new users to follow might have a racial bias.

Faddoul, an AI researcher from the University of California, Berkele…

TikTok's Algorithm Shows Unintentional Racial Bias, Researcher Finds
buzzfeednews.com · 2020

A little experiment by an artificial intelligence researcher is raising questions about how TikTok's recommendation algorithm suggests new creators to users.

Specifically, the question is whether that algorithm is sorting suggestions based …

Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.

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