The Right to Know Social Media Algorithms

Abstract

<p>One of the most important legal issues in the age of social media is how to tackle algorithmic secrecy. Social media algorithms permeate society, yet most are developed and applied in a black-box manner with a range of serious social consequences. For example, the amplification of fake news by social media algorithms has caused tremendous harm to democratic governance and undermined pandemic relief measures.<br></p><p>In addressing the problems of algorithmic secrecy, the legal protection of social media algorithms as trade secrets is a major obstacle. This article explores the possibility of recognizing a right to know algorithms as the legal basis for requiring proportionate disclosure of trade secrets pertaining to social media algorithms. This new legal right would promote algorithmic transparency in the public interest.<br></p><p>The right to know, a civil liberty that enables citizens to obtain information held by the government and certain private entities, lends strong policy support to recognition of the right to know social media algorithms. As the article shows, this new right would function to protect democratic participation, public safety, and social equality, the three kinds of public interest that are of crucial importance in the algorithmic society.<br></p><p>The article then discusses how this new legal right could prevail over the trade secret protection of social media algorithms, paving the way to a multi-stakeholder approach to regulating algorithmic secrecy. This new approach would empower the legislature, administration, and judiciary to determine how social media companies should effect proportionate disclosure of information on their algorithms. Its primary aim is to promote transparency of social media algorithms, to make them more intelligible, and to hold social media companies accountable should they fail to fulfil their disclosure responsibility.</p>