Social media privacy: Are the algorithms invading it?

By Willow Symonds
Staff Writer

Twitter is under new management, and not everyone is happy. However, one significant change might improve the user experience.

Months before Elon Musk became Twitter’s owner, he announced plans to make the app’s algorithm public. People have wanted to know this for years, as social media platforms drive engagement by pushing content to people’s feeds.

Currently, though, algorithms for popular social media sites remain secretive.

“A lot of people during the pandemic went down these QAnon rabbit holes because of recommendations,” student Heather Barthell told The Voice. “[Social media platforms] are trying to tickle the addiction part of your brain. Because of all the neurological research in the past 15 years, they’ve figured out how to do it. It’s profit incentive, like all the ads on YouTube.”

Heather Barthell took Digital Journalism in the Winter 2022 semester. For this class, students used blogs to post their article assignments, then announced these blog posts on Twitter.

“I was very hesitant to have a blog with my name on it,” Barthell said. “[Being private] was something I really had to advocate for myself. Not everyone wants to be public.”

However, social media companies collect data from even those who aren’t famous. This data drives advertising revenue and feeds the algorithms.

In 2022, Meta’s stock price dropped by billions of dollars, according to The New York Times. This happened partly due to users turning off tracking. Heather Barthell was one of these users. While she doesn’t use Facebook, she has an Instagram account (a site owned by Meta), which she accesses only through her browser.

She also uses Twitter to keep up on the news, but she’s been upset with the steps Elon Musk has been taking.

If Elon Musk publicizes Twitter’s algorithm, then “lawmakers can make decisions about what makes a healthy commercial system,” something Barthell wants to happen. While she believes social media doesn’t have to be negative, minimizing harm and keeping safe takes effort.

WCC’s on-campus Public Safety Department gets calls from students reporting incidents related to social media. According to Deputy Chief Jamie Zecman, these vary from identity theft to fraud, to scams tricking people out of their money. Public Safety can’t always help them, but they can point them in a better direction.

“My kids got their first cell phones pretty young,” said Zecman. “It takes a lot of effort to monitor that, because there’s always new things they can download. [Nothing] online is ever 100% safe.”

Eliminating online dangers “starts with the leadership of these social media companies,” Zecman said. Still, the word ‘company’ emphasizes each social media platform’s goal: profit.

The Department of Homeland Security recommends viewing social media as a novel, not a diary. Anyone – friends, employers, even strangers – can see the information you share. Even if you’re not thinking about who lurks behind the screens, they’re still there, reading what you may later regret posting.

“Don’t use your emotional reaction to content as to whether you want to share it with somebody,” Heather Barthell advised. “If you have a really strong emotional reaction to the experience, then try a different content area. Unfollow people, take social media breaks. You’ll know if someone’s just trying to drive engagement.”

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