Algorithms of Oppression--Lack of Neutrality in Search Engines

I subscribe to the list for the Progressive Librarians Guild  which recently established a group on Goodreads.  They decided to select Algorithms of Oppression by Safiya Omoja Noble as their first book for discussion.  I downloaded a copy for review from Net Galley last year.  So I prioritized it and started reading it as soon as I could.  I finished it toward the end of January, and this is my review.

                          

 Safiya Umoja Noble is described in About The Author as an instructor in the University of California at Los Angeles School of Education and Information Studies.  So UCLA combined their library school with the education department.   Since librarians are educators, this does make a certain amount of sense.  I should note that UCLA still does have a Masters of Library Information Science degree program.

The foundation of Noble's argument is her discussion of how search works.  This was an eye opener for me.  It shouldn't have been, but I hadn't examined the topic critically. She states that citation analysis is the basis for page ranking in search.

Citation analysis is used by scholars to determine the significance of  a book or article in a particular field.  Noble then  tells us that the problem with citation analysis is that there is no consideration of whether the material in question is being cited approvingly or negatively.  So the number of citations doesn't indicate whether other scholars thought it was well written or valid.  Similarly, search is supposed to give us the most popular results first.  The most obvious problem is that the most popular websites aren't necessarily the most relevant for any particular user.  I was taught in library school  that librarians need to be search professionals who know how to elicit relevant results with the most specific search terms.

 Is this perception of search as a neutral process really an accurate description?  Users of search tend to assume that the top results are indeed the most popular.  Noble interrogates our assumptions about search.  What is search engine optimization?  It means that some have found ways to game the system. Advertising is also a factor.  After all, users don't pay for their searches.  Search engines need to be profitable in order to survive.  So the top results in many cases are advertisers.  As users, most of us would say that we are willing to tolerate advertising in return for free services.  Are there limits to this tolerance?  What if the advertisers are offensive to users?  What if they promote racist or sexist attitudes?

Noble shows us numerous examples of  racist and sexist top search results.  She does admit that Google is eventually responsive to complaints, and makes changes to ameliorate the situation.  This means that activist users must be vigilant, and refuse to allow advertisers or gamers of the system to demean entire groups of people.

Algorithms of Oppression is a significant book.  Information professionals and students in the field should definitely read it, but I  think it's also illuminating to anyone who uses search engines.